=yawn= In fact it is. Example- John Aaron’s starting salary at NASA was $6,800/yr. That’s six-thousand, eight hundred dollars A YEAR… not very high by early 60s standards.

DCSCA is wrong again. It was not “bloated” until tasked to do the lunar mission, which was under JFK’s watch.

ROFLMAO the ‘lunar mission’ assembled its bureaucray which was hardly ‘bloated’ by 1960s standards- it was a lean and mean operation for that period and expanded under LBJ, not JFK. And the ‘lunar mission’ aka Apollo was a LBJ financed endeavor until Nixon killed it.

You really don’t follow along very well….

Rand Simberg wrote @ January 24th, 2012 at 1:06 pm

Yes, Eisenhower’s NASA was mainly a continuation of the NACA, extended to space technology.

Wrong- as it abosrbed elements of NACA and much of the military space assets of the period like Von Braun’s Army people. Ever the dhill. s

“SpaceX and others are going to take over access to LEO”

ROFLMAO THEY HAVE FLOWN NOBODY. Tick-tock, tick-tock.

Hi RGO –

“those “left behind” as the US changes”? I think that is entirely too polite,and avoids looking at the core issues. Can you be a little more specific as to those changes, and why they left some people behind?”

I always try and be polite. grin

Well take NASA for instance…it has run its 50 year course….and is about to undergo massive changes and lots of people are having problems with that because 1) its their paycheck and 2) its their way of life and 3) it is sort of a legacy of how they look on America (or all three)…SpaceX and others are going to take over access to LEO and there is no real reason to continue the myth of human exploration of space now…so people who cannot adapt to those changes are not going to do wellin the coming years.

this happens a lot of places in America and it is not limited to technical or programatic things, there are social changes as well that a lot (or some anyway) people are having a hard time dealing with. In my era as a young adult in the Navy and the flying business it was women coming into the profession…some simply couldnt handle that…today “gender identification” issues are making it had for some people to deal with reality.

The role of the US in the world is changing…there is not a bipolar alignment in terms of military power anymore…and people like Mark W and Paul S and others LONG for just that kind of superpower confrontation. You could not listen to Rick S on his views on Iran and sort of say “wow he is out of touch”.

When I was on the school board a lot of people could not get hold of the reality that we didnt live in Ward and June Cleavers world anymore with Ms. (or Miss) Landers (who as a child I always thought was HOT!) and everyone coming from a certain social economic background. …their response was to want to create that world (home schooling) because that is the only world they feel comfortable with.

this is the China longing here in space politics. People would feel comfortable with a mindless race to the Moon…so they try and create one. RGO

Robert G. Oler wrote @ January 23rd, 2012 at 10:15 pm
In fact, it is, for the 1960′s. Look it up– these are matters of public record.>>

you are just wrong on it. The federal job GS pay rates were and remain “high” for Texas as well as most red states. That is one reason the homes at Clear Lake are built like and how they were. sorry RGO

What a shock.

It was not “bloated” until tasked to do the lunar mission, which was under JFK’s watch.

Yes, Eisenhower’s NASA was mainly a continuation of the NACA, extended to space technology.

“those “left behind” as the US changes”? I think that is entirely too polite,and avoids looking at the core issues. Can you be a little more specific as to those changes, and why they left some people behind?

DCSCA is wrong again. It was not “bloated” until tasked to do the lunar mission, which was under JFK’s watch.