Air Force to serve as first SpaceX customer

It never fails to amaze me that NASA doesn't actively seek out new
launch vehicles for its payloads. Under current NASA regs, I believe
that SpaceX would have to launch its Falcon rocket 14 times
successfully before NASA could put a payload on it.

What is the benefit to the US taxpayer for NASA to not support new,
cheaper launch vehicles? The satellite companies, conversely, used to
award block contracts to untested launch vehicles in the hopes that
some of these would emerge as cheaper launchers for GEO satellites. In
the case of SeaLaunch this policy worked very well.