As an institution, the United States Pentagon has come to be known for many things over the years — its transparency, its generosity, its cunning. Consistency is not one of them. In the wake of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's disastrous Starship explosion — the company's third in a row — some are pining for the good old days of tax-payer funded space research under NASA. "Weren't we NOT blowing up rockets, like, 50 years ago," asked Sarah Jeong, features editor at The Verge on Bluesky. "Also weren't we l