Not the case here. SpaceX runs the launch, builds the ship, provides recovery, and flight control, NASA is just a customer.
Ah. While Lockheed, Rayethon, and others are actual companies which support NASA by building components, SpaceX is actually a stand-alone NASA shadow company.
Recently NASA's funding has been threatened by Congress and the public complaining that it's too expensive. Everyone wants space to be privatized so that companies can compete to provide a lower cost to the public. NASA is under extreme pressure from the public and Congress to "cut costs".
By pretending to hire these private space shadow companies and prance around these fictitious X-Prize competitions they can shoot back in five years and say that Space Privatization didn't really "cut costs" after all and justify and secure their budget from future threats.
Is this a shadow company as well?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_GalacticIf you got some money laying around, you could book a flight yourself.
Since space exploration is now open to the private market, meaning ANY company can freely do this. How is NASA going to keep a lid on this conspiracy? Also, why are they encouraging this free market if they want to keep a secret. So now any private industry that offers this is a NASA shadow company? What about the companies in the UK? Canada? India? Japan?

So what, they are giving this money to private companies to keep quiet? What happens when one company says no, and sends a craft up anyway and discovers this "secret".