Re: commercial uses of the Dtick and the Heavy Lifter


Rand Simberg wrote:
> On 4 Oct 2005 06:50:28 -0700, in a place far, far away, "Ed Kyle"
> <edkyle99@xxxxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
> way as to indicate that:
>
> >> Do note that unless it has a *lot* more payload than commercial launchers,
> >> or is unique in some other significant way, it is illegal for NASA to
> >> attempt to market it commercially or to subsidize an attempt by a NASA
> >> contractor to do so. NASA is specifically forbidden, by post-Challenger
> >> law, to compete with commercial launch providers (even for its own needs,
> >> never mind on the open market).
> >
> >NASA couldn't do it, but the agency could probably
> >"commercialize" the system by handing it off to a
> >commercial operator. Sure, its development would
> >have been subsidized, and it would be easy to argue
> >that its operation was at least partially subsidized
> >(NASA would have to charge a fee for use of launch
> >facilities), but show me a commercial GTO launch
> >vehicle that isn't or hasn't been subsidized (front
> >or back door) in some way.
>
> If Falcon IX flies, we'll be able to.

I'm not so sure about that. SpaceX currently
has a $40 million military launch contract
backlog. The military payloads that we know
about are non-essential studentsats - a way to
provide a back door subsidy. The Falcon 9
payload is "top secret", non-standard, and
one-off, so we have no way of knowing if it
is essential or not.

- Ed Kyle

.

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