Rockwell-Lockheed has discussed how they plan to privatize the Space Shuttle. So far as I know, they received a multi-billion dollar support services contract to carry out the refurbishment of the Shuttle fleet between each launch. The will use the Kennedy Space Center facilities, but will completely replace the day-to-day government/NASA work force by contractor personnel; most of whom probably already do most of these operations anyway. It is not really clear to me just how NASA recovers any financial savings this way because now they have to pay contractor profit fees and overheads. Clearly, the best solution is for private industry to completely take over the transportation process with the federal government operating as just another customer, and with no federal subsidies to the private sector. That may be a long time off because companies work on profit margins and small budgets for up front costs ( Rand D etc). We will have to see just how this all works...especially after the next Shuttle mishap when people start pointing fingers at each other and looking for scapegoats.
Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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