[mturmon]

Yep, there are a lot of strong opinions on this thread that identify NASA solely with human exploration. This is a mistake, and it's frustrating to see it made by so many bright people.

It's a historical fact that the human side of space exploration has always been subject to great political influence. Consequently, it goes through these unseemly convulsions from time to time.

The political involvement in engineering processes drives rationalists nuts. Even to the extreme of believing that the way to rationalize human space exploration is to put it in the private sector.