The article recounts the failed attempts of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California to modify its culture of work after the end of the Cold War. It examines the results of the intersection of management trends at JPL in the 1990s. It contrasts the story of the JPL with the troubles at the Marshall Space Flight Center at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the 1960s.