Planned and Unplanned NASA Closures
Message from the Acting NASA Administrator: Planning for Potential Lapse in Funding
“As you know, the current continuing resolution funding the government expires on March 23. While we hope it won’t be necessary, we need to once again make preparations in the event an orderly shutdown is required and are updating our contingency plans. I share your frustration that we find ourselves here once again, but I also want to thank you for your continued hard work. You haven’t missed a beat in executing all the functions of our agency.”
Keith’s note: Meanwhile all government offices in the Washington, DC area (NASA HQ, GSFC) are closed due to several inches of snow.
Oh goody, here we go again. Does anyone know how much a 0-duration Fullstop/Restart of the federal government costs?
I suppose the costs after that are roughly proportional to the T duration, superimposed on various zigs and zags.
I’m not sure about the numbers, but you’re right to think the start/stop cost is significant. After that, I suspect the cost is nonlinear. For example, a spacecraft in development will have some schedule margin built in (in case of something going wrong.) If the government closes and they can’t work, that can come out of margin fairly painlessly. But if the shutdown is too long, and the don’t have enough margin to absorb it, then things suddenly get very bad.
Several inches, really? It’s more like 8+ inches over a majority of the DMV area.