Goals that NASA projects did not achieve in the promised timeline: Artimis I, II and III, Constellation Program, Mars Observer, Climate Orbiter, Polar Lander, and Phobos 1, Hubble Space Telescope, X-33 and -34.
In both cases I think that the unreliability stems not from incompetence, but the degree of difficulty.
[1]: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chinas-tianwen-3-...
Cutting funds like that have been doing, it will be lucky if NASA can send someone down the street to get milk :) I would think returning samples from Mars would be a big help on exploring Mars for potential settlements.
I guess they believe Thoughts and Prayers will be enough to explore Mars.
ACCount37•1h ago
MSR is still in a limbo though, which isn't too surprising - between how much of a disaster was JPL's original MSR proposal, how much of a mess NASA is right now, and how much of a battleground NASA's budget has devolved into.