[nouveaux]

Nasa's biggest challenge is marketing. Their funding is dependant on public perception. Nasa does not get more money by having better engineering. Nasa gets more money when congress thinks it will get them more votes with their constituents.

[acuozzo]

> Nasa does not get more money by having better engineering.

But several catastrophic failures in a short timeframe can ensure it gets no money at all!

[nouveaux]

My point isn't that Nasa should prioritize hiring good marketing over good engineering. Nasa has good engineers. My point is that their biggest challenge now is their public perception. The general public does not care about Nasa's mission.

SpaceX is far more popular than Nasa. If you stop to think about it, SpaceX is just making travel cheaper and it shouldn't be that interesting. If Nasa can make their mission more fun and interesting, they have a better shot at a larger budget.