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NASA 'Will Eventually' Retire Its New Mega-Rocket if SpaceX, Blue Origin Can Safely Launch Their Own Powerful Rockets (businessinsider.com)
NASA is building a giant rocket ship to return astronauts to the moon and, later on, ferry the first crews to and from Mars. But agency leaders are already contemplating the retirement of the Space Launch System (SLS), as the towering and yet-to-fly government rocket is called, and the Orion space capsule that'll ride on top. From a report: NASA is anticipating the emergence of two reusable and presumably more affordable mega-rockets that private aerospace companies are creating. Those systems are the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), which is being built by Elon Musk's SpaceX; and the New Glenn, a launcher being built by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. "I think our view is that if those commercial capabilities come online, we will eventually retire the government system, and just move to a buying launch capacity on those [rockets]," Stephen Jurczyk, NASA's associate administrator, told Business Insider at The Economist Space Summit on November 1. However, NASA may soon find itself in a strange position, since at least one of the two company's systems may beat SLS back to the moon -- and possibly be the first to reach Mars.
The American taxpayer should never be in the business of enriching for profit companies.
ALL of the options on the table are made by for-profit companies. The lead contractor for SLS is Boeing.
Those companies should be required to sell to the US at cost + a % of overhead
NO!! This is the problem, not the solution. This incentivizes companies to add bloat and additional expense any way they can.
provided they meet deadlines and cost estimation projections.
This DOES NOT WORK. Contractors make a low ball bid, and then requirements change, and they ask for outrageous additional payments, for work to be done in strategically chosen congressional districts. Since the "sunk cost" fallacy does not apply to government contracts, the new expenses are approved slice by slice until you typically end up three times over budget. Delay is also incentivized, since it leads to more opportunities to tack on expenses.
There is a long, long track records of "cost plus" leading to dismal results. To hold it up as some sort of ideal alternative to a competitive market for launch services is just idiotic.
SLS should be cancelled. The sooner the better.
If Boeing wants to continue it on there own dime, so they can bid against Space X for launch services, that is fine. Probability of them doing that: 0%. They aren't that stupid when they are spending their own money.