Boeing and Lockheed were the main companies providing launch services, but merged both of their space launch divisions into a joint venture, ULA. Effectively be

Boeing and Lockheed were the main companies providing launch services, but merged both of their space launch divisions into a joint venture, ULA. Effectively becoming the only player and not having to competitively bid against each other anymore. And because of that, space launch contracts tended to not be competitively bid. For about a decade, where ULA was the only game in town and they could and did quote any price they could justify with a straight face. One such occasion is what brought SpaceX to sue under antitrust laws. They also had to be certified to take part in the bidding process, but the lawsuit was to force the contracts to get competitively bid in the first place instead of simply being rubber stamped to ULA.