bilbo.niket@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU ("Niket K. Patwardhan") (02/12/86)
To the person collecting opinions for Congress. I don't see any reason why private ventures who want to spend their money to buy a shuttle shouldn't be permitted to do so. As long as NASA had some shuttles it owned itself, they couldn't really do any damage, (even financially) since they would have to charge enough to make a profit, while NASA does not have to. If the extra production lowered the price a great deal, that would be a benefit to everybody, and NASA can recover some more costs via royalties. In addition, we would not be in this ridiculous situation where because of budget limitations, the loss of ONE vehicle is sseriously threatening the national security. If one of those companies goes under because their assumptions about the launch market was unjustified, NASA could turn into a shark and acquiire a shuttle at bargain basement prices.