I’m informed by a reliable source within NASA that COTS is not being cut (at least, not now). PAO will supposedly be straightening the story out with Flight International. While I’m obviously glad to hear it, the fact remains that I was unshocked at the original story. Things like this have happened too many times before, and NASA still has the sad precedent of Alternate Access to live down.

[Update at 3:40 PM EDT]

Clark Lindsey makes a good point about the danger of these kinds of rumors:

According to the FI story, it was one or more of the companies among the finalists in the program that told them about the problem. If the companies are confused about the NASA funding, that’s obviously not a good thing since it would hamper their money raising among private investors. Most of the money for their projects will have to come from private sources.

[One more late-night Monday update]

I’m informed (again, reliably) that COTS is in fact sacrosanct, as a result of strong support from the White House. Which makes it a shame that it doesn’t get support for more funding. Five hundred million sounds like a lot in absolute terms, and it’s better than a kick in the teeth. But over several years, it’s a pittance, both against what it would really need to ensure a diversity in space transportation providers, and against what NASA will be spending otherwise, almost certainly much less productively.