NASA: Lessons from Ongoing Major Projects Could Improve Future Outcomes, GAO “The complexity of NASA’s major projects means they will always carry inherent risk–but prior GAO work found that management and oversight problems contribute to cost and schedule growth. As NASA works to execute new missions, including those that rely on commercial partners, GAO’s past work provides lessons that, if applied, could strengthen NASA’s management and improve outcomes of its […]

House passes infrastructure bill with $1,115 Billion For NASA, Space Policy Online “The House finally passed the second bill to address President Biden’s infrastructure agenda. This “human infrastructure” bill has $1.115 billion for NASA, far less than what NASA Administrator Bill Nelson once hoped for, but would be a significant boost for the agency on top of its regular appropriations nonetheless. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.” […]

NASA CFO statement on FY22 budget negotiations “Please see the attached fact sheet from OMB underscoring the importance of Congress reaching an agreement on FY 2022 appropriations, and avoiding the continuation of 2021 funding levels under a full-year continuing resolution (CR). Outlined are some of the consequences that a CR would have on NASA, including impacts on the Artemis program and climate change initiatives. Below is a statement from NASA […]

NASA OIG: NASA’s Construction Of Facilities “… The process also does not effectively utilize business cases for Agency-level prioritization, despite their value towards providing the required business need and justification for initiating projects in terms of a cost-benefit analysis. Moreover, assumptions such as the scope of the projects used in the Agency’s business cases did not consistently match the actual scope of the approved projects. For energy savings projects costing […]

Draft House Infrastructure Bill Funds NASA and NOAA Space Programs But Not HLS, Space Policy Online “NASA will get an extra $4.4 billion if Congress agrees with draft legislation proposed by the House committee that oversees the agency. While generous, it is far short of what NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is seeking and does not include any money for a second lunar lander for the Artemis program. The committee is […]

House Science Committee Hearing: A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Proposal for NASA 10:00 am EDT Witness: Bill Nelson Watch live – House – NASA Congress isn’t happy about SpaceX’s lunar lander and may vent this week, Ars Technica “NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will appear at a committee meeting of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee on Wednesday, and the meeting could be full of intrigue […]

NASA Administrator Statement on President’s FY 2022 Funding Request “This FY 2022 budget, along with continued bipartisan support for NASA’s goals and missions, will empower NASA and the United States to lead humanity into the next era in exploration – an era in which government and the private sector partner to take us farther than ever before – to the Moon, to Mars, and beyond – and to expand science, […]

Keith’s 21 May update: Earlier this week Bill Nelson suggested that NASA could solve all of its financial woes by getting $10-11 billion out of the new Infrastructure bill. Well, tick tock. Republicans balked at the overall bill so President Biden came back with a smaller counter offer. There will likely be more. It looks like there is a lot less money in the cookie jar – and R&D is […]

GAO: NASA: Assessments of Major Projects “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) portfolio of major projects in the development stage of the acquisition process continues to experience cost increases and schedule delays. This marks the fifth year in a row that cumulative cost and schedule performance deteriorated (see figure). The cumulative cost growth is currently $9.6 billion, driven by nine projects; however, $7.1 billion of this cost growth stems […]

House Appropriations CJS subcommittee Hearing: FY 2022 Budget Request for NASA Keith’s note: This is the first time that NASA Administrator Senator Astronaut Bill Nelson faces Congress. There is no mention made of the hearing on the NASA TV calendar. But wait – the NASA TV site says it will air the hearing at 2:00 pm. So much for the accuracy of the NASA TV calendar I suppose.

When I came to the US at 18 with two suitcases full of books, I had no idea I'd work at @NASA one day. The Biden admin's pledge to land the first person of color on the Moon isn't just historic–it's personal to me. If you can see it, you can believe it.https://t.co/BaijwUAE3h — Bhavya Lal (@blal) April 9, 2021 Acting NASA Administrator Statement on Agency FY 2022 Discretionary Request […]

Final FY21 Appropriations: NASA, AIP “Under its fiscal year 2021 appropriation, NASA’s budget is increasing 3% to $23.3 billion, with most of the additional funding allocated to its human exploration directorate. However, the increase falls short of the $25.2 billion the Trump administration had requested to support its goal of landing astronauts on the Moon in 2024. The budget for NASA’s science directorate is increasing 1% to $7.22 billion. This […]

Senate Appropriations: Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies FY 2021 “National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – $23.5 billion. The bill provides an increase of $866 million above the funding level for the previous year. It includes a funding increase of $689 million for human exploration activities related to returning U.S. Astronauts to the Moon. Funding levels for the Space Launch System, Orion, and associated ground systems remain unchanged from […]

Hearing to conduct oversight of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s budget and activities 2:00 p.m. EDT, Room 325, Russell Senate Office Building Witness: James Bridenstine Watch live

Q (the one asked in my prior tweet)Bridenstine: Odds are good of getting HLS $. We need the $3.3 B to get to Moon in 2024 and believe we'll get it after conference w/Senate. Expect CR prob to Christmas and then an omnibus bill with the $3.3B.#Glenn2020 — Marcia Smith (@SpcPlcyOnline) July 15, 2020

Appropriations Committee Releases Fiscal Year 2021 Commerce-Justice-Science Funding Bill Full Bill “That the National Aeronautics and Space Administration shall use the Space Launch System, if available, as the launch vehicles for the Jupiter Europa missions, plan for an orbiter launch no later than 2025 and a lander launch no later than 2027, and include in the fiscal year 2022 budget the 5-year funding profile necessary to achieve these goals.” “Provided, […]

NASA Approves Development of Universe-Studying, Planet-Finding Mission “The FY2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act funds the WFIRST program through September 2020. The FY2021 budget request proposes to terminate funding for the WFIRST mission and focus on the completion of the James Webb Space Telescope, now planned for launch in March 2021. The Administration is not ready to proceed with another multi-billion-dollar telescope until Webb has been successfully launched and deployed.” FY 2021 […]

Keith’s note: In the NASA FY 2021 budget briefing I asked Jim Morhard what the total cost of Artemis would be up to the point of landing people on the Moon. He said $35 billion. Yea that’s apparently the additional cost to do Artemis I, II, III – on top of what was already being done. But what was already being done was to send humans to the Moon – […]

– NASA Administrator Statement on Moon to Mars Initiative, FY 2021 Budget – NASA FY 2021 Budget Info, NASA – FY 2021 Budget, OMB Keith’s 9 Feb update: NASA is on page 101. Some highlights: “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is responsible for leading an innovative program of exploration that would return American astronauts to the Moon by 2024 and build a sustainable presence on the lunar surface […]