[repentant_pundit]

the source of the money is still largely from the fedgov....just by means of contracts and grants

I oppose grants, they are essentially speculative political gifts.

But what's wrong with contracts? If you were in private business, would you not serve whatever customer you can, including a government agency?

At least there's a competitive written bid process and then a binding contract to deliver specific things within a specified time frame in exchange for payment.

What's your proposal ?

Throw more billions at NASA from the already $20 Trillion in-the-hole Federal Credit Card, in hopes they might create something better than the massively inefficient space shuttle failure ?

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[Wonder Warthog]

"But what's wrong with contracts? If you were in private business, would you not serve whatever customer you can, including a government agency? What's your proposal ?"

I actually agree with the contract approach. I'm just pointing out that the money still comes out of our taxes, and is not a purely private enterprise endeavor as advocated by the more manic "small-government" libertarians.

"Throw more billions at NASA from the already $20 Trillion in-the-hole Federal Credit Card, in hopes they might create something better than the massively inefficient space shuttle failure?"

Inaccurate. The final space shuttle design is NOT what NASA wanted to build, but what they were forced to compromise on due to massive budget cuts to have more money for war and welfare. In the original design, both stages were fully recoverable.