Funding and cooperation

>
> Lower launch costs do not benefit "everybody".
>
> Existing powerful vested interests from the western launch vehicle lobby
> fight very hard to keep launch costs high. This is because they want
> to make money by selling the existing generation of launch vehicles.
> If somebody comes along and lowers launch costs, the existing western
> launch lobby would lose market share, so they have fought tooth and nail
> to prevent this from happening.
>

I rarely buy this sort of argument though... If Boeing et al could
launch the same stuff much cheaper, why wouldn't they do that and even
further maximize their profits through the differential between what
they can charge and what it actually costs them? The same argument has
been put forward in the past re sunk costs in the telecommunications
industry, for example, but in actuality they all seem to have pretty
much adopted the nice new fiber optics techniques that infinitely
multiply bandwidth despite the lack of a market... Boeing and Lockheed's
managers may be shortsighted in some ways, but I don't see how they
could avoid taking advantage of cheaper launch technology if that was
actually available to them. Sure they'll avoid spending money on R&D,
and yes they'll act as protectionist as they feel like. And they might
be reluctant to re-tool for some new technology; but it would be
abdicating their responsibilities to their stockholders not to take
advantage of vastly less expensive launch technology if it was actually
available to them.

Arthur