The article is really interesting, but the stress the author expresses about the potential downfall of NASA seems misplaced. This is just creative destruction a

The article is really interesting, but the stress the author expresses about the potential downfall of NASA seems misplaced. This is just creative destruction at work. If NASA can adapt to capitalize on the new paradigm, then it will, and there will be NASA logos everywhere in future space stuff. If not, then NASA will fade away, and some of us will wax nostalgic about how cool NASA seemed when we were kids but nobody will really care because humanity will have moved far past the limited space exploration that was possible to-date. Like most old US government programs, NASA is fully of wasteful political constraints - for instance, facilities scattered around the country and to satisfy pork-barrel politics and get random senators to support the overall program. I think NASA is still a net good, and I'd love to see it adapt, but if it fails to adapt, that probably just means the institutional dysfunction between Congress and NASA administration was too great, and even though it will be a little sad, it will still be a net win for humanity to replace that dysfunction with a new wave of highly functional new players.