bucy wrote:

NASA intends to spend around $500 million over the next several years subsidizing development of commercial services for delivering cargo and possibly people to the International Space Station (ISS).

It seems like Delta (Boeing) and Atlas (Lockheed) are perfectly capable of doing this job, probably more cost-effectively than NASA can.

Who do you think the subsidies are actually going to go to?

And there is a big technology gap between getting a payload into space (Delta, Atlas) and getting a payload delivered to the ISS. This proposal makes sense -- they want an alternative payload system that they aren't responsible for, but if they don't offer up development money, it would cost more in the long-run if it became an option at all.

RE: NASA Aims To Stimulate Commercial ISS Resupply Services