It does not surprise me that an organization like NASA would embrace open source, but I appreciate the reasons that they cite for using open source:
“The motivations for NASA to distribute software codes Open Source are:
- to increase NASA software quality via community peer review
- to accelerate software development via community contributions
- to maximize the awareness and impact of NASA research
- to increase dissemination of NASA software in support of NASA’s education mission” (NASA)
NASA is embracing the community elements of open source: peer review, contributions, and open sharing of information.