Run, I'm not "afraid" - we are on a message board, for heavens sake, not a battlefield. I didn't respond because I was focusing on the other questions raised, and did not realize that I (as opposed to others) was expected to answer you, but here goes:
The short answer is Tim Huff was not building the stratellite; Bob Jones was. I think Jones had a few snafus (like when the carbon composite frames turned out to have manufacturing defects and had to be sent back to Europe and redone) that slowed down the optimistic timelines he was giving Huff. I also think Jones meant well, but he did not allow enough leeway for the inevitable testing and manufacturing problems which are bound to arise in such a process. Someone mentioned once that perhaps Jones, coming from the NASA culture, did not have a realistic appreciation of such things.
Jones is history now too (I can't remember who went first, Jones of Huff), and so far, Murch is delivering where Jones did not. In the end, Huff was held accountable for projections which failed and that's as it should be.
P.S. Run, I have no "deal" - I'm a GTEM shareholder.
