NASA takes a beating pretty regularly from politicians and the general public alike regarding the high costs of their missions and the not-always-obvious returns to society. An article on ArsTechnica today highlighted just how kick-ass NASA really is when it comes to space exploration over the past half decade. It was written in response to a question that the 35 minute engine burn Juno executed to get into Jupiter's orbit "wasn't that big a deal". The author goes on to expound that other than the Russians putting a probe onto Venus and a Mars lander that died in less than a minute (he forgot the ESA's Rosetta landing though) - no other nation on Earth has achieved NASA accomplishments getting to Mars and beyond the asteroid belt (Pioneer 10, 11, Voyager 1, 2, Galileo, Juno, New Horizons). Even with SpaceX and other commercial solutions bringing Earth orbit costs down and the reaches of space into the private sector, would it be fair to say NASA still the absolute, undisputed King of the Solar System when it comes to space operations?