...when we were getting a steady diet of how NASA was just another big, bad government bureaucracy that couldn't get anything right, that it was bloated, too expensive, incompetent, and otherwise needed to be abolished or replaced, or at least privatized.

NASA is doing exactly what it should be doing, providing R&D, infrastructure support for the commercial space effort, and conducting purely scientific missions the private sector is unwilling or unable to get involved in.

I have my fingers crossed for JUNO, it looks like an incredibly well planned and thought-out mission with enormous potential and promise. Let's hope Murphy and his infamous Law take a little vacation.