The early shutdown of the Delta 4 Heavy’s propulsion system during the Boeing-built rocket’s demonstration launch Tuesday prevented three satellites on board from reaching orbit.

The rocket’s main payload, a sensor-equipped dummy satellite called DemoSat, was dropped too low to achieve orbit due to a shorter than expected first stage burn. Also lost were two experimental nanosatellites provided by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.

Come on people, we’ve been doing this for 40 years now.  All you had to do was go straight up and release three satellites.  That’s it.  The Shuttle ain’t flying and long-proven simple processes aren’t working.  What is going on at NASA?

Could it be this?

John W. Young, 74, announced Tuesday his plans to leave the space agency on Dec. 31.

Young was the first human to fly in space six times and the only astronaut to pilot four different spacecraft.  He flew in the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs.

Could it be that the ethics and dedication to acheiving simple tasks the simplest way possible have been forgotten?  These rockets have gotten a lot more complicated, but they don’t seem to work as well as the Mercurys.  Could it be NASA’s complete reliance on contracting out simple tasks?  If this is the case, then maybe this is the solution:

Administrator Sean O’Keefe, who over the past three years led the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through an aggressive and comprehensive management transformation and helped the agency through one of its most painful tragedies, resigned today

Now, where the problem truly is is highlighted by  the headlines themself.  Sean O’Keefe’s retirement is the headline news at NASA.gov.  John W. Young’s retirement I can’t find at NASA.GOV.  NASA has become nothing but a beauracracy protecting itself.  More than the director needs to be addressed IMO.