[Frank_Discussion]

You're right, but you're wrong. Yes, the (high-level) bureacratic garbage is strangling prospects for real accomplishment, no doubt about it. I've been working in the JSC environment for nigh on a decade now, and I've seen some crap filter through in that time.

"We can do just about anything we want."

Yes, but what we want to do we can do in about 5 to 10 years from today, if our institutional hangover cleared.

China did it yesterday.

It does not matter what we did 42 years ago - It matters what we can do now, and what we can do in the future. All other perspectives are, as it has been said, Whistling Past The Graveyard.

[Bryan24]

Well, from a "snapshot in time" perspective, you're right. They're flying and we're not.

I've been at MSFC for 4 years. I have previously spent 15 years in the commercial, high-tech sector. The bureacracy in NASA is simply unbelievble.