[vonneumannstan]

Well to be fair Nasa isn't nearly as good as it once was. The quality of engineer during the Apollo era was far better and more like what can be found at Spacex

[mmooss]

What is that based on? NASA's recent accomplishments are far beyond anyone. Off the top of my head: The many Mars missions, JWST, Europa Clipper (still in progress), etc. SpaceX hasn't left Earth orbit, afaik.

[servo_sausage]

If you had your pick of launch systems to work on, I don't believe you would pick any of NASA's platforms since the shuttle.

Their explorer robotics are interesting, something I would be proud to work on; but a pretty different nitch.

So NASA is not drawing from the best people anymore.

[itishappy]

DART is an example of both an incredible NASA accomplishment and a SpaceX launch that left Earth orbit.

[NetMageSCW]

SpaceX launched a Tesla Roadster to Mars orbit.