"Another Government Agency" Gave NASA Spy Satellite Hardware
NASA Request for Information: Concepts for Applications of Large Space Optics
“NASA is soliciting broad community inputs in support of a study activity focused on utilization of large flight qualified optical systems recently transferred to NASA from another Government Agency.”
Keith’s note: “Another Government Agency”? Who writes this stuff? This is just goofy. Everyone knows that the NRO gave NASA hardware that was supposed to have been used in spy satellites. Specifically, the hardware came from the Future Imagery Architecture (FIA). Wikipedia notes that the New York Times called the FIA “perhaps the most spectacular and expensive failure in the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects.”. Any questions?
– NRO Gives NASA Two Hubble-Class Telescopes (Shh!), earlier post
– Are NASA’s New Telescopes NRO Future Imagery Architecture Leftovers?, earlier post
– How Much Will the Free NRO Space Telescopes Cost?, earlier post
– NASA Seeks Members for NRO Hardware Study Group, earlier post
Twenty billion dollars wasted on this boondoggle. Wow. That’s right up there with Constellation and SLS/Orion.
The F-35 program is set to dwarf all previous Government and DOD boondoogles, IMHO. Even the US Navy doesn’t want it.
It still has some catch-up to do, the F-22 program is at $67 billion and counting. At least they cancelled further orders of the F-22, so that program will just cost maintenance going forward. Ironically, further orders were cancelled on the theory that the F-35 unit cost would be cheaper. Now it appears the F-35 unit cost may end up doubling that of the F-22.
Can you provide any supporting evidence that would justify this opinion or that the Navy doesn’t want it? Have you compared the development costs of the F-35 to the cumulative development costs of the F-16, the F/A-18, the EA-6B, and the Harrier (in 2012 Real-Year dollars) which are the aircraft the F-35 will replace? I suspect that once you do this, the F-35 program costs will be right in line with or slightly below the sum of these other programs.