"Jim Kingdon" wrote in message
news
Looks like the Air Force has decided that it doesn't believe in
competition after all (I'm assuming that the Air Force was consulted
as is planning to say yes, although I assume that their approval is
still needed):

United Launch Alliance will be structured as a 50-50 joint venture
between Boeing and Lockheed Martin -- combining services currently
provided separately by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems' Expendable
Launch Systems division and by Lockheed Martin's Space Systems Company
-- for launches of each company's respective rockets.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0505/01eelv/


Interesting.
"Work the companies are performing independently in support of
NASA-sponsored Space Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicle concepts for future
space exploration initiatives will be excluded from this joint venture."

It is economics catching up with the current situation (slower commercial
satellite market); Boeing's current executive suite problems; Lockheed
attention on absorbing its recent acquisition of the old Rocketdyne
operations from Boeing (now the liquid rocket maker for US) and global
competition in marketplace (sounds like a plug for Thomas Friedman's new
book - The World is Flat! ).

gb