SPACE.com -- Northrop Grumman Buys Builder of SpaceShipOne

SPACE.com -- Northrop Grumman Buys Builder of SpaceShipOne

I don't know whether this is great news or horrible news. For those who don't know, I'm a big supporter of space expansion, if only because it's cool.

Scaled Composites is a very cool company, that has been involved in many aviation firsts, and recently expanded to private aerospace with great result.

They've always had investments by larger aerospace companies, but apparently in the last few years, Northrup Grumman has been increasing their stake, leading to this news that it will now be a wholly owned subsidiary.

I don't really know what will happen here, but given Northrup Grumman's defense contractor status, and their involvement in the government space program, I fear that this may be the end of the development I saw there.

I went to the first SpaceShipOne launch into space, and I felt that it was an important milestone. People going into space *because we want to*, not to fight another country, or spur weapons development, that's important.

Here's hoping Scaled Composites doesn't get lost in NASA hell. Because the last thing we need is another thousand engineers working on another space shuttle.