Re: Why is NASA still giving away flights on its own vomit comet?

In article <joe-AFC929.14452712072006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Joe Strout <joe@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Indeed, why is NASA still using its own vomit comet for ANY purposes?
Isn't there law in effect that requires it to purchase equivalent
commercial services where available, rather than relying on its own
craft? Or does that only apply to spacecraft?

The main problem is that NASA is very good at finding reasons why the
available commercial services aren't "equivalent".

Moreover, they have incentive. Decide that internal service X is no
longer necessary because there are commercial equivalents, and Congress
typically will zero out the budget for X, but *won't* give an equivalent
amount of money to X's users to buy the commercial version. If you're
lucky, they may give the users *some* X-replacement funding, but it
typically won't be enough to buy the same level of service.
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