Well it could learn to not be a inept launch designer/operator, it used to be, but the big thing in the way of that is also in the way of them doing much. They are now a civil service organization driven by political winds. Hence the LAUGHABLY overpriced Constellation, in contrast to L/M and McDonnell Douglas offers for a $3B (in ’95 $’s) RLV capable of lifting a couple times a week, and in the MacDac case capable of Earth surface to lunar surface (with on orbit refueling) and return to Earth surface while fully reusable. Constellation would do far less, cost 20 times as much to develop, and really offer nothing of great value to industry or space development.

Commercial crew appeared unlikely to lower costs to NASA compared to shuttle, due to the planed associated overhead and (pork?) programs. So no Revolution there

You want a better NASA, get a better politics (especially civil service rules) to drive it.

The funny thing is that Senator Nelson has said that he didn’t want Congress designing a launcher, but the language in the bill seeks to force NASA to use the most expensive parts of Shuttle and Ares I. NASA will never be able to afford to do much if it is never allowed to stop being a launcher designer/operator – they don’t do it very well, and it sucks the majority of their budget out of real exploration initiatives.