The results seemed to work at first.  By thinking outside the box, NASA could bang out 9 or 10 initiatives per year.  A Fischer Price "Speak and Spell" duct taped to a Sony "BabyWatch" camera/intercom could be used as deep space probe (See Disk-O Conspiracy Sprocket Article: The Truth About Voyager V, 4/15/99).  Hundreds of defective General Electric toaster ovens with over-clocked Motorola beepers could be tossed out of the shuttleÌs cargo bay to test re-entry trajectories.  It is even rumored that a large back-lot of "Pepsi None", the failed predecessor to Pepsi One that caused an uncontrollable oily bowl discharge and severe clinical depression, was procured for use as a LOX (Liquid Oxygen Propellant) substitute even though it was later discovered that Pepsi None had only superficial similarities to LOX and completely lacked qualities crucial in a LOX propellant such as the ability to combust or be ignited.

NASAÌs new found zeal for half-assed bargains began to catch up with them.  On October 13th, 1998, a Mars exploratory probe made from the best parts of a Wammo Slip&Slide, a 13 Channel CB Radio and containing a limited payload of discounted "Wang Chung" singles and cassette tapes burned up upon entering the Martian atmosphere due to a key calculation that had not been converted from metric to standard measurements.  Only one month later, scandal further divided top NASA officials when the "Pepsi None"  back-lot acquisition was discovered to be a fraud.  Several leading NASA technicians were found ingesting the LOX propellant.  "I found them held up in the crapper complaining about their wasted lives" said Dr. Zamos Antiquarian, a NASA psychiatrist, "It was very disturbing".  "NASA had dedicated several hundreds of dollars on the PEPSI NONE/LOX initiative" admitted Yank Stevens who was the chief accountant assigned to the project as he exited the new Jet Propulsion Laboratories at the Burlington, Alabama Motel Six.