You can do anything in a year with unlimited funding and no need to meet regulations, keendog. Its the funding and the certification that cause all the problems.
You'd have no problem finding people to fly the results. After all, they had people lining up begging to be the first man to have a rocket strapped to his arse and be fired on a ballistic trajectory.
Later in their lives people willing to do things like that get elected to the Senate ...
... the organization which ensures that no-one gets the funding to follow in their footsteps.