We have at least 2 US companies building space launch capability, and several other international "space launch for hire" organizations are operating. NASA's Ares rocket development was a waste of money, and Obama was right to stop it. Let the commercial space trucking business competition get started, and lets try to get new US companies to be the winners in this business. Neil Armstrong is stuck in 1969, but meanwhile, "the times, they are a'changin'".
Judge Vaughn R. Walker should get the Presidential Freedom Award. He has told everyone in government that we are all equal under the law. Even President Bush and NSA spooks don't get a free pass to lawless behavior. As VP Biden would say - this is a BIG F*'g deal - not just for illegal wire taps, but for all kinds of lawless behavior that has been (still is) been done by government employees.
NASA had a vision in the 1980s to become "the trucking company of space", which is akin to the idea of weekly launches. They hired expensive consultants to help them prepare for that future. They ran into at least two brick walls. One was the lack of funding. The second was a culture of being risk averse. The Atlantis crash was used by the risk averse to force the culture everywhere. NASA is now coasting on its resources and is a small shadow of its original dream - being only an occasional developer and launcher of small science probes.
The future of space will be created by corporate development and launch organizations. They will bring a higher risk tolerance to ventures. Some accidents will happen, just as in the early days of air flight. But the flip side is that much more progress will be made, as we have seen from the results of competition in the airplane industry as it developed over the past 80+ years. Some cluster of corporate ventures will eventually produce weekly launches. NASA will not be a party to them. Their dream has passed. Corporations will compete for success and resources, and pass by NASA's shadow.
The Tao is like a glob pattern: used but never used up. It is like the extern void: filled with infinite possibilities.