And despite the occasional slip of a date reference from various executives, an official ship date still hasn't been set.

CNN: Some see ploy in Microsoft NT rename

Heroic pronouncements like the one above, which would seem to raise the specter of failure and impel employees forward, perversely do just the opposite: they incent employees to lobby to lower the bar and slip the delivery date.

FORBES: We Never Fail

RKA, having still had no money from the government, quietly allowed the launch date of the service module to slip from April to December of 1998.

ECONOMIST: Rocket science