NASA and the Space Industry

An exploration of how NASA's relationship with the private sector developed and how it works. It outlines the varying kinds of expertise public and private sectors brought to the tasks NASA took on, and describes how this division of labour changed over time.

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Few federal agencies have more extensive ties to the private sector than NASA. NASA's relationships with its many aerospace industry suppliers of rocket engines, computers, electronics, gauges, valves, O-rings, and other materials have often been described as "partnerships". These have produced a few memorable catastrophes, but mostly technical achievements of the highest order. This is an exploration of how NASA's relationship with the private sector developed and how it works. It outlines the varying kinds of expertise public and private sectors brought to the tasks NASA took on, describing how this division of labour changed over time. It explains why NASA sometimes encouraged and sometimes thwarted the privatization of space projects, and it describes the agency's role in the rise of such new space industries as launch vehicles and communications satellites.