[anymouse]

Actually I have a high level of regard for Griffin and most of his top management (finally the Bush Administration has pushed out the deadwood.) These are bright folks who know they will survive.

What they are worried about is whether NASA and American government-sponsored manned space exploration will survive.

The good news is, that I just got a great deal on car insurance at GEICO. :)

I'm only half joking about that. For those who don't know that GEICO originally was an acronym for Government Employees Insurance COmpany. They went private back in the 80s and have succeeded famously - to the point that most people don't know their history and assume they were named after a lizard and have silly, annoying, yet memorable commercials.

The lesson is that space development needs to shift to the private sector as well, in order to not only survive, but excel. And yes, some of the process of getting us into space will be silly, annoying, yet memorable.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the comments, but I'll never look at that little GEICO (Gecko) the same way again.

I agree with your comments.

[FreedomPoster]

>>The lesson is that space development needs to shift to the private sector as well, in order to not only survive, but excel.

Jerry Pournelle has been advocating exactly that for years. The engineer:manager ratio went below 1:1 at NASA long ago. This is not a good thing.