Jeff Krukin’s piece has been republished over at the Commercial Space Gateway, with a lot of comments (including one commenter who doesn’t know where the Delta IV is manufactured, or where the Atlas V is planned to be).
[Update a few minutes later]
Actually, in rereading that comment (I notice now it was from the SSF’s Bob Werb, who presumably does know where the EELVs are built), it was probably sarcasm.
Another ill-informed comment, this time probably not a sarcastic one is that “Public and Private Space Efforts Need Each Other”. It argues that commercial space for now needs government funding and that therefore NASA and the private sector should collaborate (presumably in fleecing the taxpayer):
“The government pays for this and therefore the government needs to build its own launchers.”
The fallacy becomes apparent if instead of using the vague term “government” we use more precise terms:
“The government takes taxpayer’s money to run a space program and therefore it should give that money to MSFC to build rockets.”
Equivocating by using the same word government for both the IRS and MSFC hides the fallacy. I’ve seen this so often I’m starting to wonder if this is a deliberate attempt at deception.
I was paraphrasing, this is not an actual quote from the post. Sorry about that.
I find it exceedingly difficult to find where any specific launcher or its components are built (while trying to investigate how wide-body Centaur would be transported if it ever happened). I would not be surprised if industry insiders were confused, even about goings on in their own companies.
Delta IV was always planned to be built in Decatur. They built a modern new production facility there for it. The current plans are to move Atlas there as well (part of the point of the ULA consolidation).