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NASA Splits $1.1B For Three Commercial Spacecraft
coondoggie writes "NASA today continued its development of commercial space systems by splitting a little over $1.1 billion with Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies (Space X) and Sierra Nevada to develop and build advanced spaceships. 'Today's awards give a huge advantage to the three companies that got them, because competitors will need to fund their own development in its entirety. On the other hand, by partnering with the competitors, NASA has managed to seed the development of five different manned space vehicles for under $1B so far, a leap forward for the evolving space passenger market. They've paid for it on a reward-for-progress basis, handing out pre-agreed amounts of money for each specified milestone. SpaceX was well ahead of the other two competitors because of the unmanned Dragon, which has already berthed with the International Space Station. The company has borne the brunt of the development costs itself, putting in about $300 million of its own money in addition to about $75 million from NASA.'"
I don't understand one bit of this, and since there's less than 25 replies thus far, slashdot rules state I have to post without RTFA lol. So NASA gets government funding and now they're using it to make commercial products to sell and make money on (like satellite launches I assume) which is almost another Solindra. Then they take the majority of the money and hand it over to completely private companies, which is another Solindra.
Sounds like a great use of my tax dollars to me...oh wait no, the other thing. It's bullshit. If someone is going to make a profit, get a fucking loan or something and don't touch my tax dollars. That's not what they're for! They're basically for the government buying stuff for me like roads and the FBI and army protection, not free investment capital for a company that won't ever pay me back in any way shape or form.