Geoff wrote: Anyone with any knowledge in these matters would call the Shuttle Program an monopoly- that was my point at start of the thread.

Chris writes: A monopoly in what sense? Russia has Soyuz. Rutan and others the world over are aiming (I assume) for orbit sometime.

As far as Soyuz, we don't have a world government ((yet)).
And as far as other companies trying to break into the monopoly:
First you can have a molopoly on passenger cars, and not have one for freight trucks or motorcycles. Rutan is *simply* trying to find a market niche that NASA is not presenting addressing, this doesn't prove the Shuttle program is not a monopoly- that's Nick's "innovators scurry around their feet and pick up the crumbs":). But in this case the crumbs are pretty damn substantial- if NASA was *effective* or *competent* it wouldn't have overlooked these crumbs. Of course, that *WOULD* interfere with their notion that only a few superman can go into space.