I see many of you focusing on the misuse of "ditches" while you should focus on the use of the word "trust" by those who signed the contract. Pretty sure it will not be the last time we see this kind of reasoning.
That established trust has always been the Goliath that SpaceX challenged. Boeing was the only trusted company for the Commercial Crew contract, ULA was the only trusted company for payload delivery, etc.
I think this is a different type of trust.
SpaceX had to prove their competence to be trusted for US government contracts (and other customers).
They did that and I would trust their technical competence.
However, after the events of the past few years, especially last 12 months, they have lost a more important kind of trust.
There was an illusion you could trust certain countries, political institutions and, for some bizarre reason, certain billionaires-cum-oligarchs.
Recent upheavals and actions have really pushed people to question exactly who and what you can trust.
Also the recent focus on strategic elements with regard to globalisation also plays into these choices now - where it might have been dismissed a couple of years ago.
> There was an illusion you could trust certain countries, political institutions and, for some bizarre reason, certain billionaires-cum-oligarchs.
Granted you live in a neat place, those two first ones are still reasonable to trust in your day-to-day life, and in those same places the latter was never worshiped on the same level that happened in the US.
