The Orbital Space Plane will be built by the usual suspects.

NASA/MSFC intends to negotiate additional scope under existing contracts, and solicit and consider proposals under a limited competition, only with the Lockheed Martin Corporation, The Boeing Company and a team consisting of the Northrop Grumman Corporation and the Orbital Sciences Corporation, for the design, development, test, delivery, and flight certification of an Orbital Space Plane (OSP).

And so another multi-billion-dollar boondoggle begins...

Well, it does support the contention that NASA has become a hybrid "good ol' boy's" network and a jobs program. And if it's like airplain procurement, i's a chance for "the usual subjects" to pit the various congressional districts against each other in a bidding war to see who can offer the biggest tax breaks.

Wow, who could have seen this one coming ...

Fifty says that either LockMart or Boeing gets the contract. They can offer a sweetheart deal on boosters or throw temper tantrums and threaten to cancel their EELV programs to make up for their losses if they lose the competition. Moreover, given Orbital Sciences' record with the X-34, I'd be real cautious about giving them any more money.

Not that I'm a big defender of Orbital, but the X-34 fiasco was mostly NASA's fault.

Granted. But that was tangental- as we all know, past screwups are not really an obstacle to NASA giving you more money. The simple fact (from my outsider's perspective) is that Boeing and LockMart make the boosters that will launch this contraption, which also happen to be the two EELV boosters. Since Boeing has already shown its willingness to use its EELV as a hostage in this Lockheed affair, I'm betting we see similar manuevers around the OSP contract, which should pretty much shut Grumman/Orbital out.