In the shuttle group's culture, there are no superstar programmers. The whole approach to developing software is intentionally designed not to rely on any particular person.
And the culture is equally intolerant of creativity, the individual coding flourishes and styles that are the signature of the all-night software world. "People ask, doesn't this process stifle creativity? You have to do exactly what the manual says, and you've got someone looking over your shoulder," says Keller. "The answer is, yes, the process does stifle creativity."
I think equating "best engineers" with "superstars" means you might be bringing your own associations to the topic. (Not unfairly, that's a standard association in the Valley, but still.)
The few NASA engineers I've known have been superb as NASA employees. They weren't grand innovators solving problems on their own, but they were knowledgeable and intelligent. They had deep understanding of the tools they worked with, were rigorously careful and formal, and understood the problems and tradeoffs of their work far beyond any spec they were handed.
To me, that counts as being one of the best engineers in the world. These are people who know what they need to do, why they need to do it, and how they can best accomplish it. In the case of NASA, that generally means doing something radically different than you would at a tech startup, but these people are still brining enormous ability and great care to their work.
Actually NASA culture is to strictly avoid super stars. See:
http://www.fastcompany.com/28121/they-write-right-stuff
In the shuttle group's culture, there are no superstar programmers. The whole approach to developing software is intentionally designed not to rely on any particular person.
And the culture is equally intolerant of creativity, the individual coding flourishes and styles that are the signature of the all-night software world. "People ask, doesn't this process stifle creativity? You have to do exactly what the manual says, and you've got someone looking over your shoulder," says Keller. "The answer is, yes, the process does stifle creativity."