OASA

You may be on to something with this more than you know--except maybe the Will part. I was listening to another podcast (I know, I can hear you guys groan...yet another podcast...I've had a lot of windshield time lately that I can't cruise blogs and such) about a month ago. NPR Science Friday: the Future of Spaceflight, dated 3 February 2006 was very interesting and several of the panelists proposed that NASA turn over all the mundane cargo moving, like the remaining payloads to the space station, satellite launches, and all the nug work to contractors (like the FedEx of spaceflight), and NASA move on to do what it does best--cutting edge missions, especially ones that advance the state of the art and science, and the exploration of space.

It looks like NASA is kind of doing just that to a degree. There are a couple of private enterprises challenging the big aerospace giants, like Space-X, and at least one of them is developing its own manned capsules.