Nearly 50% of the money NASA sends to contractors goes to three organizations: Lockheed Martin, The JPL at Caltech, and Boeing.
The rest goes to other Military-Industrial "Usual Suspects," like Grumman and Raytheon.[1]
These organizations are principally interested in maintaining their cushy position and soaking up tax money. They are not particularly driven to push the envelope.
Obama's plan is a "shifting" around of the contracts, yes, but it's shifting away from organizations like Lockheed Martin to organizations like Scaled Composites. Away from fat lazy organizations to ones with some hunger and drive.
That's also the reason why it's probably DOA in Congress.
Lumping JPL/Caltech in with LockMart and Boeing does not make sense. The first is a research lab mainly concerned with conceiving and building robotic (unmanned) missions. The second two are mainly involved with operating manned flight systems. No comparison.
The rest goes to other Military-Industrial "Usual Suspects," like Grumman and Raytheon.[1]
These organizations are principally interested in maintaining their cushy position and soaking up tax money. They are not particularly driven to push the envelope.
Obama's plan is a "shifting" around of the contracts, yes, but it's shifting away from organizations like Lockheed Martin to organizations like Scaled Composites. Away from fat lazy organizations to ones with some hunger and drive.
That's also the reason why it's probably DOA in Congress.
[1] http://www.govexec.com/features/0808-15/0808-15s13s1.htm