wrote:

I'm sure that even today's NASA could put men on the Moon in eight
years if there was a really pressing need to do so and someone in the
government willing to kick them in the ass if they didn't achieve it,
but there isn't.



What gets me here is this keeps happening over and over.
NASA needs something; companies compete for it, one is given a contract
for its "superior" proposal, the thing is oversold and gets canceled,
and several tens or hundreds of million dollars just vanishes into the void.
Any company can screw up once in a while, but this is looking like
systematic corporate fraud.
They know the thing won't meet specifications even as they propose it,
but can siphon off a lot of money from NASA before it gets canceled for
"unforeseen problems".

Pat