Thursday, January 13, 2011

Auditor says NASA wasting money

NASA is wasting $215 million on a canceled rocket program, and that could more than double this year unless Congress acts, the agency's inspector general warned lawmakers Thursday.

NASA will have spent that much by the end of February on aspects of the Constellation program that President Barack Obama and Congress agreed to cancel.

But Obama has signed only one NASA bill into law for fiscal 2011, and that bill sets general policy guidelines without appropriating any money. The agency continues to be guided in spending decisions by the continuing resolution approved by the lame duck Congress. As a result, NASA continues to spend money on projects that are set to be canceled or scaled back.

That will continue until that stop-gap spending bill for government agencies expires on March 4. But if that stopgap measure is extended for the rest of the fiscal year, through Sept. 30, the wasted spending will reach $575 million, according to Inspector General Paul Martin.

"As a result, NASA is in the difficult position of having to fund elements of a program that have been canceled," Martin wrote in a seven-page letter to lawmakers.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Orlando tried unsuccessfully to fix the problem before Congress adjourned in December. He said Thursday he'll introduce legislation to fix it.

"Given that every dime counts in our space program right now, we can't afford to be wasting money," Nelson said.

Reports of the wasted spending come as NASA struggles to fund three more shuttle flights —instead of two, as originally planned — before the shuttle program ends.

The agency also is boosting funding for an effort to work with private companies to develop rockets to ferry people to the International Space Station, while continuing to build its own heavy-lift rocket for deep-space missions.

Constellation was proposed by President George W. Bush to send astronauts back to the moon. NASA will try to salvage parts of the program’s Ares rocket and Orion capsule to create a rocket that could reach asteroids and Mars.

Martin found that NASA tried to avoid wasting money by developing parts of the Ares rocket and Orion capsule that could still be used. But he said the agency still wasted money in October and November. Martin’s letter quoted one NASA official as saying: “There’s a point coming up soon where we would just be spending money to spend money.”

— Bart Jansen, Washington

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