Best use of Federal Stimulus money I’ve seen so far.

NASA somehow has gotten hold of $50 Million of the 9% of the federal stimulus money being spent in 2009 and is using it “to seed development of commercial passenger transportation service to space.”

NASA does some good stuff, but they couldn’t agree on the basic specs without spending more than $50 million dollars.  Given that the shuttle fleet is being retired next year, and that will leave the US government without a reliable method for getting men safely into space, handing the problem over to the private sector makes damn good sense.