The first 2 Falcon 1's were never expected to succeed. There's only been 1 payload lost and they new it was a high risk flight. The last 2 flights have been a stunning success.
Both ORB and SpaceX have a much better success rate than Lockheed and Boing. the first 2 Atlas's blew up on the launch pad. It took 5 trys to succeed. Both ORB and SpaceX will be doing test flights of the Falcon 9 and Taurus 2 during the first half of this year.
The budget for Nasa Science was not cut, It was increased. The cancellation of the Ares will stop the drain on the NASA budget.
There's a lot of controversy over what's been happening and think that's why open discussion boards like this one are needed.
Lockheed has already jumped the fence and is about to anounce their participation in the private spaceflight movement. Boing has asked this Nasa basher for help and I have updated the Boeing board as a peace offering. Ii think talks are about to begin there. 2010 is about to usher in a new Space movement.