Re: NASA back to space
newer/better/cheaper - part of that is the shift to private industry for routine launch vehicles.
meanwhile, NASA did a lot of really cool stuff back in the nineties, and maybe noughties, with some radical engine designs and whatnot (NOT just the ion drives). As I recall, the project was shelved when their test vehicle crashed, and making a replacement was too expensive.
But yeah private industry is likely to be the best source for new ideas anyway. Pouring money into a black hole gets us a bunch of agenda-driven gummint bureaucrats and "scientists" wasting taxpayer money on their pet projects. If a private company must make a profit, on the other hand, they weed that out themselves.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
