NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Senior Embedded Software Engineer interview questions

I was introduce to JPL via a third party contracting company . I was scheduled for an interview on March 2017 and went to the appointed place and time at JPL facility. The interview took about 3 hours and I talked with two of the managers one senior and one junior. Then I learned I would be working with the second manager. who was a young gentleman on his thirties. we talked about every aspect of the job from design, and implementation to test and validation of the final product . I think I could convince them that I have been around long enough to hand their job too. After one week the answer was that I am over qualified for the job! and no offer rendered on my behalf. This job has been advertised for several month before and after my interview and apparently no one has been hired for the open position. On hunch I have about this and similar positions in NASA is that while their intention is not to hire! they still have to interview to show their upper management that they have looked for a qualified candidate while they could not find the right person! it sounds like the deadlines are only some superficial dates on the paper and not enforceable! The same few people who do the interview can do the job in several years rather than a couple of years if they hire more engineers. They rather not to and keep their positions secure and funded for several years until another big project prospect is looming. at the same time on paper they have done all the legal work to satisfy the NASA management requirement. That is why SAPCE-X and other similar companies are around to bypass this hurdle in government funded projects.