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SpaceX, US Air Force Settle Spy Sat Dispute
hypnosec writes The US Air Force and private space flight company SpaceX have settled their dispute involving the military's expendable rocket program, thereby paving the way for SpaceX to join the spy satellite launch program known as Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). The settlement opens doors for SpaceX to compete with United Launch Alliance (ULA) for launch of spy satellites. ULA is a joint Boeing-Lockheed venture – the only private player to have received clearance for launching black ops satellites.
Yes and no.
The pre-existing "private space industry" was only private in that it was private companies doing work for the government. We're talking about big defense aerospace contractors. You couldn't just go up to Boeing or Lockheed and pay them to launch a payload into orbit. They only sold their rockets to the military/NASA, and if you wanted a payload to go up, you had to get the government to do it. The difference now is that private companies such as SpaceX and Orbital are not just building the rockets, they're launching them too. While the government still has a certain regulatory/oversight involvement, that's hardly the same thing as before. No, the commercial rocket-building business isn't new, but the commercial rocket-launching business certainly is.
To make an analogy, it would be as if the government previously had been the only purchaser and operator of airplanes in the U.S., even though they were made by Boeing; but now you could go to a private company and fly on an airplane run by them.
The Colorado representatives favor ULA, of course. So they asked for information about the full costs to have SpaceX do it, mentioned that SpaceX has a higher rate of cancelled launches, etc. Just as SpaceX and their representatives point out the downsides of the ULA contract. I think that's a good thing, that the House and the American people hear both perspectives, then make decisions.
Certainly you wouldn't want the administration to make these choices behind closed doors, with no public information about why they chose one vendor over another and what the options were, would you?