O'Keefe failed to enact pro-entrepreneurial reforms that Congress supported, like competitive prizes:

http://www.spaceprojects.com/prizes

He talked the cost-cutting talk, but when it came time to do the walk he did what large government contractors wanted by sweeping such long overdue reforms under the rug. Can you imagine if the XPrize were 10 times larger? NASA's annual budget would still be well over 150 times larger than THAT.

Why would O'Keefe have done this? Perhaps in exchange for prestige-risking DOD support for Halliburton's war in Iraq? Maybe because O'Keefe either wants to take the revolving door into the lucrative private sector or to head the Pentagon?

AIAA interview of NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, October 2002:
AIAA: "Your predecessor served a record 10 years in this job. Do you aspire to such longevity?"
Sean O'Keefe: "Absolutely not! Please take me out of my misery long before then! I have a working understanding with my wife: When we are about six months from going broke, please let me know-that's when I'll quit. The timing will be when I have three kids that will be entering college, that's going to be the pacing item. Or I'll have to get a paper route to supplement!"