The Story of How NASA Went From Space Shuttles To SpaceX & Commercial Rockets

The launch of SpaceX's DM-2 mission taking NASA astronauts to the Space Station was the culmination of years of development, and more importantly years of political and management decisions which shifted NASA's reliance on internally designed and built launch systems to much cheaper rides on privately built rockets. It took the support of multiple Presidents and NASA administrators in the face of political opponents who cared more about the money being spent in their districts than the results that the spending produced.