NASA awards $10 million flight services contract to seven firms

[annabanana]

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20110810_3658.php?oref=topstory

Has NASA needed to downsize their personnel force lately..hmmmm?

Privatizatio-o-o-o-n, Ho!

Space tourism company Virgin Galactic is among seven companies NASA has tapped to take over cargo flights, as early as next month, as part of a new commercial direction for the U.S. space program.

This week's announcement of the combined $10 million flight services contract follows the July return trip of the Atlantis vehicle that capped a 30-year manned-space shuttle program. The firms NASA has hired will be flying technology into low-Earth orbit, not propelling astronauts into deep space.

NASA staff will not be assigned to the contractor teams, agency spokesman David Steitz said Wednesday. In a cost-cutting measure, the Obama administration opted to abandon former President George W. Bush's plan to build a new manned space vehicle in favor of outsourcing shuttle construction and launches to the private sector.

The space agency expects to start doling out tasks to the seven firms by the middle of September, Steitz said. Each company will vie for work orders worth a few hundred thousand dollars up to a few million dollars apiece, depending on load requirements and services rendered, he said. The maximum amount each vendor can collect over the two-year contract period for the Flight Opportunities program is $5 million.

[Major Hogwash]

1. It's odd that we would privatize today what Reagan wanted to do: Star Wars

Ol' Ronnie had just seen 1 too many movies, as far as I was concerned.

[DCKit]

2. I don't see this as a bad thing.

Despite their generous funding, NASA has developed few new technologies in decades. Their X-Plane projects - the most promising, inexpensive alternative to the shuttle fleet - went to the trash heap - and they were being developed by outside contractors, anyway.

These various private companies have new technology and have already been put on notice (re:$5mil each over two years), so they've got to perform and prove their technology.

These contracts represent jobs, folks.