I think it's inaccurate to think that the type of organisation that NASA was in the 1960s was purely a product of intrinsic factors. I'd think that the reason N

I think it's inaccurate to think that the type of organisation that NASA was in the 1960s was purely a product of intrinsic factors. I'd think that the reason NASA was as it was during the 60's was because of the external circumstances it found itself in: - a competitive race with the Soviet Union against a background of the cold war - a specific and hard presidential goal of "landing a man on the moon..before the decade is out". Where those external pressures are in place, it would be almost expected that any organisation could (and likely, would) become entrepreneurial and innovative. And the converse is even more true: absent the goals driving the organisation, bureaucratic friction will drag it to a halt.