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From: rcpilz@ablnc.ATT.COM (Robert C. Pilz)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Commercial Space Launch Act of 1988
Keywords: Space Commerce
Message-ID: <672@ablnc.ATT.COM>
Date: 27 Jan 89 19:25:35 GMT
Organization: AT&T, Maitland, Florida
Lines: 20


Why is there all this jabber about NASA this and NASA that? Blaming
and expecting everything from NASA? 
According to U.S. Representative Bill Nelson (I forget which Shuttle
flight he was on.) from Melbourne FL (just South of the Cape), "We
can now say that the U.S. commercial space launching industry is
on a roll"
What he meant by that is that the big 3 (McDonnell Douglas Corp.,
General Dynamics Corp., and (Orlando's) Martin Marietta have increased
the number of commercial payload contracts from 2 in 1987 to the
current number of 26. (11 of these are for foreign companies).
The commercial space industry is alive and well. What the 1988
act did is set up guidelines for prices at Cape Canaveral launch pads,
make the government a co-insurer of the flights, and protect the
companies from arbitrary changes in launch dates. 
Let's let free enterprise bring space into the next century and
stop knocking/depending on NASA!
R. C. Pilz
AT&T IMS
Orlando FL