Comment by dingaling
12 years ago
Space transport has always been commercial.
Who do you think designed and built the Saturn V? Redstone? Atlas? Ariane?
Commercial companies making a profit.
12 years ago
Space transport has always been commercial.
Who do you think designed and built the Saturn V? Redstone? Atlas? Ariane?
Commercial companies making a profit.
Roughly:
Redstone: Designer: Army Ballistic Missile Agency (Now Marshall Spaceflight Center) Manufacturer: Chrysler
Atlas: Convair and its successor interests (General Dynamics, Lockheed, ULA)
Saturn V: NASA Marshall, Boeing, North American and Douglas
Ariane: EADS Astrium and Arianespace/CNES (French Space Agency)
So, yeah, they've always been commercial, but they haven't always been commerically driven or (entirely) commercially managed.