Development cost at SpaceX one tenth of NASA.

Aviation Week says SpaceX developed and launched the Falcon 9 heavy lift rocket booster for $390 million. For comparison NASA used the NASA-Air Force Cost Model computer program to estimate the same job and found the computer estimated cost to be $4000 million, ten times as much. The cost savings are attributed to SpaceX program management technique.
NASA administrator Charles Bolden said "They don't spread things all over the country the way that NASA and defense contractors tend to do. They're very focused in two locations in the country. They bring everything in-house. They have no subcontractors, so everything comes to them."
NASA post Shuttle plans are up in the air. They ought to just purchase the Falcon 9 off-the-shelf to boost crew and cargo to the International Space Station. Congress wants NASA to develop their own heavy lift booster to keep the vast Shuttle workforce employed. The Obama administration wanted to drop the NASA heavy lifter development and concentrate on deep space missions. So far the three sides have not agreed on a policy, so things are just drifting. Meanwhile the US is paying the Russians something like $25 million a ticket to take US astronauts up to the International Space Station.