IN THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED: WHEN NASA NEARLY GAVE BOEING ALL THE CREW FUNDING

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

This excerpt from the book 'REENTRY: SpaceX, Elon Musk and the Reusable Rockets that Launched a Second Space Age' describes a meeting at NASA headquarters 10 years ago where agency leaders met to decide which companies should be awarded billions of dollars to launch astronauts into orbit. The decision boiled down to three players: Boeing, SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada Corporation. It came down to three factors, price, mission suitability, and past performance, with price being equally weighted to the latter two factors. The decision was close, with NASA officials nearly choosing only Boeing for the contract, but in the end, SpaceX was included.