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Old October 15th 11, 08:02 AM posted to sci.space.policy
David Spain
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Posts: 2,901
Default Launching a New Era: SpaceX vs. ULA

Alan Erskine wrote:

If they can offer lower-cost alternatives, one must wonder why it has
taken 50 years to do so.


Because no-one forced them to.

I blame the space-race mentality (which was actually an arms-race mentality)
that created the expensive "business-as-usual" practices of the defense
contractors.

Until COTS came along. There will be ramifications in DoD contracts as a
side-effect to NASA's COTS that are only now becoming clear I think. This is
like one of those James Burke 'Connections' episodes only playing out in
slower real-time.

Dave