Panelist: SpaceX Costs Offer Hope For NASA

By Frank Morring, Jr. .

A comparison of what it cost Space Exploration Technologies, Inc. (SpaceX) to develop the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, and the estimate of what it would cost NASA to do the same job, offers hope that NASA can focus on deep-space exploration and leave flights to low Earth orbit (LEO) to the private sector, according to a member of the outside panel that reviewed U.S. human spaceflight plans for President Barack Obama ...

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