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Northrop Grumman to own Scaled Composites
Dolphinzilla writes "According to Space.com, Northrop Grumman Corporation agreed on July 5 to increase its stake in Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites (designers of Space Ship One, Proteus) from 40 percent to 100 percent. They have purchased the company outright, marking a new future for the space pioneering firm. 'Scaled Composites currently is working with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic venture on a vehicle designated for now as SpaceShipTwo, which would carry two pilots and six paying passengers into suborbital space for a few minutes of weightlessness. The company also is building a new carrier aircraft, dubbed WhiteKnight2, that will carry SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of 15 kilometers before releasing it to soar to suborbital space. The two companies last year formed a joint venture called the Spaceship Company to build the new vehicles.'"
"... one of the three largest defense contractors in the United States."
That means, "one of the three largest organizations that make tools for killing other people".
Organizations that support killing other people are never creative. They survive in the murky secret world of government contracts, where it is corruption that wins, never idealism.
Combining a highly creative company with a company whose purpose is largely to make violence more efficient will only destroy the creativity.
"If Northrop Grumman puts its resources behind him..."
They are not putting resources behind him. They bought the company. Burt Rutan is now just one of the resources. If he is like other executives of bought companies, he will leave within two years.