Being given the brush off, more or less, by the existing aerospace companies, who thought the money Musk offered for the kind of performance he demanded was laughable, really has paid off. When Zero got in and the NASA budget was really chainsaw massacred, those same companies went back to Musk, now needing work, and were told, we don’t need you, we did it ourselves.
And with Musk going to court and getting the Russian RD-180 engines blocked from being sold to Aerojet for the Atlas V this is going put the squeeze on Aerojet and ULA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RD-180
2014 supply chain disruption
Doubts about the reliability of the supply chain for the RD-180 arose following the Ukraine crisis in March 2014. For over 13 years since the engine was first used in the Atlas III launch vehicle in 2000, there was never any serious jeopardy to the engine supply, despite an uneven record of US-Russian relations since the Cold War. But worsening relations between the west and Russia after March have led to several blockages, including a short-lived judicial injunction from the US courts that were unclear on the scope of the US sanctions on importing the Russian engine.[2]
On May 13, 2014, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced that “Russia will ban the United States from using Russian-made rocket engines for military launches”[3]—a frequent payload of the ULA Atlas V launch vehicle which powers its first stage with two RD-180 engines that are expended after each flight.[4] In response, the US Air Force has asked the Aerospace Corporation to begin evaluating alternatives for powering the Atlas 5 booster stage with non-RD-180 engines. Early estimates are that it would require five or more years to replace the RD-180 on the Atlas V.[5]
With questions swirling, ULA hastens Delta 4 production
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1405/19delta4/#.U3v9oihr2og
Atlas 5 rocket set for launch amid cloud of controversy
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av046
“So, then, it is necessary to observe that in fact there is no current alternative. Worldwide, there is no one-million pound-class LOX/hydrocarbon-engine, and anyone who has been out on a test stand testing their own rocket engine knows this is at best a five- or six-year process, and it does not matter if you are returning to production or building your own. So, there is no current alternative and there will not be one for five or six years, best case.” /preview.html#.U3v94Chr2og
(I’m sure SpaceX will position themselves to fill the gap.)
Rogozin hurls salvo of attacks on U.S. space program
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1405/13rogozin/#.U3v-uihr2og