"Greg \(Strider\) Moore" wrote on Tue,
8 Jan 2019 15:09:39 -0500:

"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message
.. .

Looks like Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser is getting solidly
established. NASA has approved production and barring any disasters
it could create a problem for the current 'second source' holder,
Northrop Grumman.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/...ome-a-nig.aspx

Wonder if they'll progress to a manned version?


What I don't understand is, why the assumption SpaceX will sell them a
launch? Sure, it's money, but in this case it's direct competition and cuts
into their bottom line.


Well, actually it doesn't cut into their bottom line at all. After
the fiasco of the "all our eggs in one basket" Space Shuttle, NASA and
USAF are pretty adamant about maintaining at least two sources in
every mission space. SOMEBODY is going to get cargo services besides
SpaceX and SpaceX makes more money if that 'someone' is launching on
Falcon 9 (while maintaining the capability to launch on a ULA booster
if Falcon 9 is grounded for some reason) than they do if that someone
is NG launching on their own boosters.


The only real reason I can see if if SpaceX wants to eventually cut back on
CRS to focus on other activities and interface less with NASA.


See above. SpaceX can turn a profit on launches of Dream Chaser or
they can get zero dollars for launches on ULA boosters or NG Cygnus on
NG boosters. Why WOULDN'T they sell launch services for Dream Chaser?


--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw