[TalBlack]

I suspect that we will be seeing more and more of these failures in high-tech. Political concerns drive the makeup of the teams rather than merit and excellence.

It wouldn't seem to make sense this long after the first moonshot that NASA would have trouble doing it again, but I suspect that they WOULD have trouble replicating the Apollo Shots--could be I'm just getting old and cynical.

To be sure I sometimes wonder where America got the nerve to MAKE the moonshot in the first place. Under ANY circumstances its biting off a lot!

[Analyzing Inconsistencies]

So is trying to get the bureaucrats to finally offer competitive prizes regarding space:

http://www.spaceprojects.com/prizes

They lose control if they offer them, after all. And if private industry outshines them (which would eventually happen, undoubtedly) then they lose more than control...

[Vince Ferrer]

It wouldn't seem to make sense this long after the first moonshot that NASA would have trouble doing it again, but I suspect that they WOULD have trouble replicating the Apollo Shots--could be I'm just getting old and cynical.

To be sure I sometimes wonder where America got the nerve to MAKE the moonshot in the first place.

I credit both the inspiration for the space program, and our subsequent lack of ability, on the science fiction of the time. Up till the moment when we landed on the moon, science fiction was our only guide as to what was up there. But when we got there, and realized that space is not populated by beautiful women in tight aluminum foil outfits, our interest dropped off dramatically.