[rs79bm]

really working well. The Mars Rovers, both of the working NASA Mars orbiters, Cassini, Stardust (if they can get the parachute to deploy when it gets back!) as space missions, and TRMM, Terra, Aqua, Aura in the earth-observing sector

I think you said it best in your own reply. The successes that NASA has been able to accomplish far outweigh the negatives, or drawbacks. I don't know if you know it, but many of the things we take for granted in our daily lives were designed and developed by NASA.

[cogitator]

I don't know if you know it, but many of the things we take for granted in our daily lives were designed and developed by NASA.

Oh, I certainly do know it. The article highlights problems at NASA that IMO need rectifying. That certainly doesn't mean that I think all of NASA needs to go -- they need a better planning process. The Space Shuttle lesson was that if something is too expensive and keeps going, it sucks money away from other, perhaps more useful, programs. That doesn't mean that the Space Shuttle isn't technologically amazing.