I repent using the broad brush against NASA. It's a very diverse organization, and above I mean the "big ticket vehicle design" side of NASA. And the core of th

I repent using the broad brush against NASA. It's a very diverse organization, and above I mean the "big ticket vehicle design" side of NASA. And the core of their problem is that the whole program was basically designed by Congress. I'm sure they're doing their best to deal with the absurd hand they were dealt. NASA efforts seem to be most sane in inverse proportion to the amount of attention paid to them by Congress. Much of what NASA does is science and small-scale engineering that Congress doesn't know or care about, and that's usually done pretty well and efficiently. But the more visible parts really make up for that in their absurdity. (Even the more agile parts aren't exactly lean and mean, of course. Project Morpheus, which is running an Armadillo-derived rocket, is a very agile program for NASA, and has more than 25 people full time. Armadillo at its peak was, what, half a dozen?)