I thought it odd that a Republican senator is pushing for government oversight of a private company, given that his party is the anti-regulation party.<p>Than I read this:<p><i>The senator now faces a heated 2016 reelection campaign in his district — the home of SpaceX's biggest competitor, United Launch Alliance (ULA), which is itself a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.<p>Records show that Coffman has publicly accepted more than $51,000 in campaign donations from Lockheed Martin during his career.</i><p>Now it makes sense.
Regardless of the senators' motivations, asking the government to not trust self-provided analyses by private companies on matters of national security and expensive publicly-funded science projects( like NASA's) seems reasonable.
This is an affirmatively misleading title, and not the title of the original article.<p>The members of Congress have simply inquired as to the sufficiency of the FAA, Air Force, and NASA investigations of rocket explosions that have damaged quite a bit of property paid for by tax money.<p>Better to read the original letter:<p><a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/325845340/Congressional-Letter-to-AF-NASA-FAA-on-Assured-Access-to-Space?content=10079&ad_group=Online+Tracking+Link&campaign=Skimbit%2C+Ltd.&keyword=ft500noi&source=impactradius&medium=affiliate&irgwc=1" rel="nofollow">https://www.scribd.com/document/325845340/Congressional-Lett...</a>