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I can offer some insight into that. That's the perception but the reality is more complicated and it depends.
A little over half of NASA's government workforce of ~18,000 are engineers of some kind according to data from OPM's FedScope. While you're correct that most (not all) hands on hardware are from contractors, NASA-proper is heavily involved in the design and engineering.
Man, I've got stories to tell about my experience with "NASA Engineers", but I'm afraid they'd be too specific and out myself in my relatively small industry.
Let's just say this. Every now and again when I'm shooting the shit and people are talking about their work, I start griping about the NASA people I have to work with. And normies undoubtedly go "Oh wow, NASA?!" And I have to remind them, this isn't the NASA that put a man on the moon. This is the NASA that wasted a billion dollars because they didn't convert feet to meters correctly.
Jesus... even just this last week....
But like I said, I can't risk outing myself.
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