"NASA today is a very different beast from the NASA of the 1960s. Though many would call that decade NASA’s golden age, we’d argue that NASA’s innovation and influence is even greater today"

Heracleous, L., Terrier, D. and Gonzalez, S. (2018). The reinvention of NASA. Harvard Business Review. 

A few words on the Article
 
NASA has significantly transformed since the 1960s, evolving from a hierarchical, government-funded model with strict internal control to a collaborative, networked model emphasizing open innovation and partnerships. 
 
The authors identify three key phases of this evolution: the 'traditional model' (1960s-1990s), where NASA maintained strict control and worked closely with specialized contractors; the 'transitional model' (1993-2006), initiated by the International Space Station project, which pushed NASA toward international collaboration and openness; and the 'network model' (2006-present), driven by the need to adapt to new economic realities and the emergence of commercial spaceflight, leveraging fixed-price contracts and shared development costs, and setting high-level goals, allowing private companies to innovate and maintain levels of ownership of the resulting technologies.
 
This evolution has enabled NASA to focus on ambitious goals like deep space exploration, establishing a lunar gateway, and planning manned missions to Mars. By embracing strategic agility, NASA has remained a leader in space exploration while fostering global space industry growth, demonstrating that substantial organizational change is possible even amid contexts of high regulation and political sensitivities.