<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>For example, someone else could launch things, whereas, NASA would just fork out the cash.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Perhaps you do not realize that NASA already contracts out for that work. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> Expendable launch vehicles are launched by private companies (Boeing, Lockheed, Orbital Sciences) and the Space Shuttle, although owned by NASA, is launched by United Space Alliance.<br /><br />They actually contract out for a lot more than most people realize. That's intentional, because it helps encourage the development of technologies in the private sector. It can lead to convoluted situations with data rights, though, because of laws for accounting in government contractors. (In general, if Uncle Sam pays for the entire development of a product, they own the intellectual property too and can do with it as they please. If you pay for some of it out of your own pocket, though, it gets more complicated, because you can exert limited rights over it then. That's generally decided during the contract negotiations.) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em> -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>