[edwin hubble]

All the major aerospace contracting companies are free at any time to get investors and pursue the space plane or runway-to-orbit technology. Nothing is stopping them.
That's the way capitalism works.

Orbital Sciences made the Pegasus 4 stage rocket (with private funding), launched from an aircraft to put satellites in orbit.

What you are suggesting is happening now.
NASA is not preventing private development.

[Jaysun]

All the major aerospace contracting companies are free at any time to get investors and pursue the space plane or runway-to-orbit technology. Nothing is stopping them. That's the way capitalism works. Orbital Sciences made the Pegasus 4 stage rocket (with private funding), launched from an aircraft to put satellites in orbit. What you are suggesting is happening now. NASA is not preventing private development.

My complaint isn't that NASA is preventing private development. My complaint is that NASA cost taxpayers millions of dollars per day for things that can often be done by the private sector.