What happened to NASA?

Thanks to Homebase for sponsoring this video! Managing your team shouldn't eat your whole day — Homebase handles scheduling, time tracking, and payroll all in one place so you can focus on running your business. Get started for free at https://yt.link/E83tXxr Want more info on Compound Conference? Head to: https://buytickets.at/girdleymedia/21... What happened to NASA? This business breakdown traces NASA’s rise from the moon landing era to shuttle disasters, bureaucracy, and the moment commercial players like SpaceX took over the momentum in space. Get the 2-minute cheat sheet for this video → https://girdley.com/youtube 👇 SUBSCRIBE for more business breakdowns    / @michael-girdley   ------------------------------------------------------------------ ► Get my weekly letter to business owners: essential insights to run, grow, and stay ahead in your business → https://links.girdley.com/newsletter-yt ► For sponsorships or inquiries please reach out to: [email protected] ► Do you have a hat I should wear in a video? Send it to us: [email protected] ► Free events on all things small business: https://links.girdley.com/lectures-yt ► Deep dives on businesses for sale:    / @acquisitionsanonymouspodcast   ► Follow me on Twitter/X: https://x.com/girdley ------------------------------------------------------------------ NASA was once the greatest engineering organization in the world. In less than a decade, it went from America’s Sputnik panic to putting men on the moon. The agency had money, talent, urgency, and a mission that people could rally around. This video looks at what happened after that mission was accomplished. Once the moon landing was done, NASA had to justify its own existence inside a political system built around budgets, contractors, and congressional districts. That changed how decisions got made and what the organization optimized for. From the space shuttle era to the Challenger and Columbia disasters, this NASA documentary follows the moments where institutional incentives started to overpower engineering judgment. It also explains why so many viewers ask what happened to NASA and why NASA declined after Apollo. The final chapter is the handoff to commercial space. While NASA became slower and more political, companies like SpaceX used fixed-price contracts, faster iteration, and different incentives to regain momentum. It’s a business breakdown about mission drift, bureaucracy, and what happens when an organization forgets what it was built to do.