Report of NASA’s Top Management and Performance Challenges, OIG
“Challenge 1: Landing the First Woman and the Next Man on the Moon by 2024
Given the multiple challenges outlined above, we believe the Agency will be hard-pressed to land astronauts on the Moon by the end of 2024. At the very least, achieving any date close to this ambitious goal–and reaching Mars in the 2030s–will require strong, consistent, sustained leadership from the President, Congress, and NASA, as well as stable and timely funding. For its part, NASA must determine the true long-term costs of its human exploration programs, set realistic schedules, define system requirements and mission planning, form or firm up international partnerships, and leverage commercial space capabilities. Over the past decade, our oversight work has found NASA consistently struggling to address each of these significant issues and the Artemis mission’s accelerated timetable will likely further exacerbate these challenges.”
Keith’s note: But wait – there’s more:
“Challenge 2: Improving LEO moves here Management of Major Projects
Challenge 3: Sustaining a Human Presence in Low Earth Orbit
Challenge 4: Attracting and Retaining a Highly Skilled Workforce.
Challenge 5: Improving Oversight of Contracts, Grants, and Cooperative Agreements
Challenge 6: Managing and Mitigating Cybersecurity Risk
Challenge 7: Addressing Outdated Infrastructure and Facilities”

Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member...

8 replies on “OIG On NASA's Challenges: A Moon Landing By 2024 Is Unlikely”

    1. The term “Performance Challenges” in the OIG report title is just the same thing as McCoy saying “He’s dead Jim”.

      The parrot is not “pining”, he’s gone on to meet his maker!

  3. Elon Musk has stated he is dedicating his fortune to establish a mars – earth transportation company. He is currently the third richest person on earth (depending on how you determine this, but still). He is building a spaceship factory in Texas. Recently, when asked about his influx of cash from Tesla, he stated that this was needed to establish a mars base.
    He will certainly enable a moon landing whenever his Starship is able to do this – the concept of Starship will be able to do it. With the establishment of the internet service Starlink, he may become the richest person on earth within a year or two.

  5. “NASA must determine the true long-term costs of its human
    exploration programs, set realistic schedules, define system
    requirements and mission planning, form or firm up international
    partnerships, and leverage commercial space capabilities.”

    That’s just cruel…

  7. OIG have hit the nail on the head. Any one of these challenges are severe problems that require intense solutions, not ppts.

    NASA should ask itself what is it’s role in the current space industry. Should NASA build rockets ? Back in the day this was really hard and needed lots of sweat and gold to solve. Now there are several commercial rocket solutions.

    NASA should, IMHO, focus on science (on the mission rather than the bus) and proving new technologies. Tomorrow hopefully we’ll see NASA astronauts delivered to the ISS by a commercial rocket … a sign of things to come.

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