Add to that, CEO Jack Dorsey has made it his high profile mission of late to (try to) improve conversational health on the platform.
The incident was the latest embarrassment for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which lost two high-profile missions to Mars last year.
As Beijing tends to respond assertively to acts of perceived foreign aggression, it is likely to become more determined about militarising its South China Sea islands if US warships launch high-profile missions within 12-miles of its outposts.
Now that Secretary Powell had used up his card as the "big shot," said one official involved in the continuing debate over the crisis, it was unlikely the administration would dispatch any more high-profile missions.
Admiral McRaven dismissed assertions that the most highly trained Navy and Army commando teams should be reserved solely for the most high-profile missions; he said they were regularly assigned to support commanders of units in a local area of combat if that contributed to the overall mission.
This leaves UNITY with a critical manpower shortage, and they are forced to send agent Cate Archer and her mentor, agent Bruno Lawrie, on a series of high-profile missions.
His departure comes at a critical time for the UN's most high-profile mission.
But it indicated that it was not prepared, at least not for now, to let a high-profile mission visit Pyongyang to try to facilitate Mr. Bae's release.
At home, Mr. Hu also hopes a high-profile mission to the United States, with the pomp of a 21-gun salute on the South Lawn of the White House and an elaborate reception at the home of Mr. Gates, the world's richest man, will shore up his standing both within the Communist Party hierarchy and in the eyes of the general public in China.
Mr. Ventrell's statement signaled the administration was not prepared, at least not now, to seek Mr. Bae's release through a high-profile mission to North Korea, as it has done twice in the past when Americans were held by North Korean authorities essentially as hostages to gain concessions from the United States.
