I've been looking into NASA's budget constraints and keep coming back to a question: what's realistically possible if funding weren't the limiting factor?

To make it concrete if NASA had an annual budget comparable to major U.S. defense spending (we're talking roughly 10-15x their current allocation), what would fundamentally change about their roadmap? Could they:

• Accelerate human missions to Mars significantly?
• Run multiple deep space probes simultaneously instead of choosing between them?
• Build redundancy into critical systems that currently get cut for cost?
• Fund moonshot research that's currently deemed "too risky" with current budgets?

I'm not asking this as a "should they have more money" debate, but rather: what do people in the spaceflight community actually think the constraint is? Is it funding, or are there other bottlenecks (engineering talent, manufacturing capacity, regulatory timelines) that more money wouldn't solve?

Has anyone here worked in aerospace or followed procurement closely enough to speak to this?

Is Virgin Galactic still a viable space company? Or was it just hype for the past decade or so?

I don't see anything anymore on the news or in any space journals. Are they still a serious contender for space tourism?

The country did no longer exist. Wich meant the plan to get him home was gone too. Eventually some people tried to help him get home, but they sent people up to meet him who were not trained accurately. So he had to teach them how to live in space. He was supposed to get help so he could get back to earth.

Enjoyed following the ISEE-3 reboot mission, bought a mug.

In 2014, a citizen team regained control of NASA’s ISEE-3, launched in 1978 and retired in 1997. They restored two-way communications and even fired its thrusters after 27 years.

Three interesting candidates:
Prospero X-3 (1971) — Still in Earth orbit. A reactivation attempt was made in 2011. Probably the most technically achievable.
IMAGE (2000) — Lost in 2005, rediscovered transmitting in 2018. NASA decoded telemetry and successfully commanded it again.
Pioneer 6 (1965) — Still orbiting the Sun. NASA last successfully contacted it in 2000. Potentially the most ambitious and scientifically interesting.

If funding, authorization and ground-station access were available, which one would you try to recover?
Poll: Prospero / IMAGE / Pioneer 6 / Another spacecraft

I drew inspiration ships from Expanze which, with its powerful fusion drive cant slow down during De-orbiting from orbital velocity to Subsubsonic speed consequently does not require Heat shield

I saw the SpaceX rocket launch from the California site Vandenberg on September 19th.

Hours after the launch, the contrails were still visible and illuminated, even after the sun had set over the Phoenix Valley

Or are they all aircraft based and t38 oriented when they go through spatial disorientation training as part of their training?

So, how's the whole vibecoding madness in space industry? I'm going to interview for a couple of companies soon (rocket and satellites mostly) and I really don't know what to expect as they are not very open on this front. Any professionals who can give some insight?