FLORIDA TODAY's EUN KYUNG KIM reports from Washington:
WASHINGTON- Most of NASA's big-ticket projects fail to come in under budget or on time, according to a government audit released today.
Ten out of 13 large-scale NASA projects that cost $250 million or more exceed their budget, on average, by 13 percent, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Those same projects also have an average launch delay of 11 months.
"While NASA's budget represents less than 2 percent of the federal government's fiscal discretionary budget, the agency is increasingly being asked to expand its portfolio to support important scientific missions including the study of climate change," the GAO said in its report.
"Therefore, it is exceedingly important that these resources be managed as effectively and efficiently as possible. In the past, this has not always been the case," auditors said, noting NASA's history of failing to meet cost, schedule and performance objectives.
Among the programs examined:
--The Ares 1 rocket, which has gone $304 million over budget and slipped a year, from 2014 to 2015, in its first scheduled manned launch.
--The Orbiting Carbon Observatory, which failed to reach orbit after an unsuccessful launch last week, was five months late and $38 million over budget.
The GAO did not make any recommendations in its report.
The full audit can be found here:
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
2 comments:
Kennedy will probably just be SHUT DOWN !! it's a waiste of taxpayer money !!!!
We need to stop listening to the GAO. Their voice is useful for government purchases when they are buying mop buckets or renting cars.
They are TERRIBLE at understanding that things that have NEVER been done before cannot be estimated with Swiss watch precision. Yet that is the only game the GAO knows. Other than certain parts of the military, how many other parts of the government specialize in making things never before attempted? Should such an agency be compared for cost performance the same way?
It's madness. GAO should just go away. As Griffin said on his way out, NASA will never do well with the GAO, and we shouldn't expect to.
I'd add that if we do finally rate well with the GAO, then we are losing our edge as a group, and aren't pushing the envelope enough. When/if the GAO finally approves of NASA, you'll know that the bureaucrats have indeed finally won, and that NASA is no longer taking any risks at all. Then we would be as worthy of being dismantled as the GAO typically suggests.
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