Jim Kingdon wrote in message ...
What reduces cost is competition.

Er... No. What reduces cost is a long stable relationship, it doesn't
necessary have to be with just ONE party, it can be with many parties.

Profiting from competition is essentially a 'divide and conquer'
tactic, it's fine, if one want to eliminate the enemies by making them
work for you by fighting each other.


Having said that, there is a glut of rockets relative to the number
of customers. This is mainly driven by each nation's desire to have
their own rather than buy abroad.

That's because having your own launcher is a national pride. Just like
the national currency. An easy way to reduce national pride is to
remove a national currency, a national launcher, a national monument
(like the statue of a leader), and so on.

Is this changing with the Starsem deal to launch Soyuz
from French Guyana, Sea Launch, Atlas 5's licensing/purchase
of a Russian engine, etc?

Er... Renting a place, hiring a launching company, buying engine
parts, and so on from foreign parties aren't damaging to one's pride,
provided it's done well.

Because not all countries or companies have the best launch sites,
engines, and so on. So they might rent or buy stuff from foreign
parties, like Shen Zhou which was based on Soyuz.

The problem is that many of these things weren't done to increase
national pride, but instead done with the intention to decrease the
national morale. And the mass media also make it look like national
pride has decreased due through these actions..

Time will tell whether globalized launch companies become the norm,
or remain somewhat at the margins of the industry.

"Globalism is Behind Marxist Subversion of America, War on Terrror"

http://www.savethemales.ca/010102.html