[jfk13]

Do you have a citation for the "mandate to give data away freely"?

I found https://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/displayDir.cfm?t=NPD&c=2230&s=1, which mentions things like "Ensure public access...", but I don't see anything there mandating such public access to necessarily be at zero cost.

[3pt14159]

Also, public access can mean that once someone gets a copy of the data they can host it for free as well. It's not as if it's under a commercial license.