SpaceX not so Private: NASA's Hands and Money Involved

SpaceX was hope the way America enters space can become more efficient in costs, saftey, and turnaround. It appears the company that just launched their first rocket into orbit this past summer did it with money from US taxpayers. Not exactly what many of us had in mind as we pushed for private corporations to enter the next phase of the space race.

NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract for 12 flights and SpaceX spent $400 million developing the rocket, half of which came from NASA.

It gets worse. This federal investment may actually go nowhere now the money has been spent. It seems Washington would rather have NASA, which has really become a crackpot team with the Space Shuttle fiasco, a project that was supposed to make entering space economical but failed, and their global warming research, than private American companies creating jobs and playing a part in expanding travel to the final frontier.

“While this test flight was important, the program to demonstrate commercial cargo and crew transport capabilities, which I support, was intended to enhance — not replace — NASA’s own proven abilities to deliver critical cargo and humans to low Earth orbit," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).