[RightWhale]

The aerospace industry goes through feast-or-famine oscillations

I am one of many who know that first-hand. It always seemed like a huge waste of highly skilled talent. I mean, here is a pool of people who can do almost anything, and they spend half their working life pounding the pavement. This won't change, though, unless the anachronistic two-year Federal election cycle is eliminated.

[Frank_Discussion]

What I mean is that it is more expensive to hire and fire and hire again during short feast-or-famine cycles than to just hold employees during the lulls. It is during these low-activity periods that SATOP is most available. As this trend reverses, wherein SATOP then becomes less and less available. Regardless of what the workers are doing, the govenrment is paying the tab. Other that administration costs for the SATOP, there is no extra money spent.

[Frank_Discussion]

Oh, and another thing:

"This won't change, though, unless the anachronistic two-year Federal election cycle is eliminated."

Damn straight! The problem with the current political control of NASA is that it has no view of the far horizon technologically, so programs of either enough duration or enough funding are hard to establish.