Burt Rutan visited Marshall Space Flight Center recently,
where he said that NASA needs another Wernher von Braun.

"http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2864191"

NASA acquired von Braun's hands-on group from the Army
when the agency was created. NASA then proceeded to
gradually turn von Braun's group from an active R&D lab
into a paper-pusher outfit - but it remained effective
as a contract oversite group because it had far more
rocketry expertise than any potential contractor.

Today, NASA has no expertise at such a level - Rutan is
right about this.

But where could NASA find such expertise? Where could
it find a real hands-on von Braun/Korolev-style chief
engineer/project manager who has designed and built
rocket engines and rockets - and launched them too? Not
Lockheed Martin, which gets its engines from Russia. Not
Boeing, which is accused of stealing some of it's ideas
from Lockheed and is emeshed in the resulting scandal.
Maybe someone from Krunichev or TsSKB Progress in Russia?
How about Rutan himself?

- Ed Kyle