By the way, the Defense Department (which seems to do well regarding space when it COMPETES AGAINST NASA, instead of collaborating with it) has the nation's largest procurement budget. NASA's neck & neck with the Dept. of Energy for the USA's #2 slot, though. Indeed, NASA also has a bigger budget than all the rest of the world's civilian space industries COMBINED.

Some folks wonder how, despite NASA's $15.3 billion dollar annual budget and a NASA charter that requires promoting a private space industry (http://www.spaceprojects.com/charter ), the privately owned space industry still isn't healthy. It doesn't have to be that way, although the procurement problems at NASA are pretty worrisome:

http://www.spaceprojects.com/washtimes110500