I’m sure a contributing factor for this is the high percentage of employees who have 10/10 dream jobs, where they get to fully explore projects that they’re truly passionate about. Otherwise, It’s probably just as fulfilling and frustrating as working for any other government agency, except for the rocket ships.
Having rocket ships probably boosts morale quite a bit.
Nasa doesnt do a lot of propulsion stuff anymore to my knowledge. A lot of that has been outsourced to contract companies like SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, etc.
They’re more in the business of mission operations these days, with some component building in the side. At least as far as my experience has been, that’s been the case.
I wish I would’ve been smart/lucky enough to fuck off to space.