In article ,
says...

On 2019-08-06 20:18, Jeff Findley wrote:

That's my point. Why should the US Government be subsidizing the
smallsat industry?

Industry, no. But research and educational institutions yes.

NASA can do this by grants to research and educational institutions.
NASA doesn't need to be in the smallsat launch business. The US
Government should not be in direct competition with private industry
like this. It's b.s.

If you think NASA paperwork would be a picnic, I've got a bridge to sell
you.

I suspect that when NASA chooses some educational instiutution for some
experiment on ISS, the paperwork is done by NASA PAO because they want
the good PR from those projects.

You suspect? How about a cite instead?

Again, I see *zero* reason for NASA to be doing this on ISS.

Do any of the small launches from ISS remain in communications with ISS
for the experiment? (aka: experiment monitored by ISS crews)? That could
be an advantage of an ISS launch vs launch on a rocket.

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing not. Their orbits will diverge
from each other, so it's going to be hard for ISS to monitor a smallsat
that's literally on the other side of the planet.

The fact that NASA wants this capability and the Japanse lab is at
capacity for such launchs points to there being a need for ISS
operations to launch such objects.

I never said there wasn't a need. But why does the US Government have
to provide this service when there are literally dozens of start-up
smallsat launchers being developed in the US? Why should the US
Government take market share away from a growing market where US
companies are trying to compete (and drive down prices)?

I'm sorry, but this is entirely ass-backwards. When the shuttle was
planning to fly educational payloads, it made sense because there were
precious other ways for such payloads to fly. But this is now 2019 not
1979.

And yesterday, Rocketlab just announced that they're going to attempt to
recover and reuse Electron first stages:

Rocket Lab to attempt to reuse Electron first stage
by Jeff Foust - August 6, 2019
https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-to-...lectron-first-
stage/

This is *exactly* the sort of commercial innovation that NASA is
undercutting by offering subsidized rides.

Jeff

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