NASA OIG Report On ML-2: What A Fine Mess
NASA OIG: NASA’s Management Of The Mobile Launcher 2 Contract
“The ML-2’s substantial cost increases and schedule delays can be attributed primarily to Bechtel’s poor performance on the contract, with more than 70 percent ($421.1 million) of the contract’s cost increases and over 1.5 years of delays related to its performance. For example, Bechtel underestimated the ML-2 project’s scope and complexity, experienced ML-2 weight management challenges, and experienced staffing turnover and retention issues. Additionally, Bechtel’s lack of a certified EVMS since inception of the ML-2 contract–a contractually required tool for measuring and assessing project performance–has limited NASA’s insight into the project’s cost and schedule issues.
Bechtel’s performance notwithstanding, NASA’s management practices contributed to the project’s cost increases and schedule delays. NASA awarded the ML-2 contract while the Exploration Upper Stage–the primary reason NASA needed a second mobile launcher–lacked final requirements, impacting the ML-2 design. With respect to contract management, while NASA withheld award fees for a 6-month performance period in spring 2021 due to Bechtel’s poor performance, the Agency did not continue this practice despite the contractor’s continued poor performance in the subsequent award period. Therefore, we question nearly $3 million in award fees NASA awarded to Bechtel for this period.”
Keith’s note: So … NASA awarded this contract, did not give Bechtel all the information it actually needed tp do the work, then let work proceed, dinged Bechtel on an award fee payment, but otherwise just let things go ahead without any attempt to halt work, re-bid, etc. NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana was Center Director at KSC from 2008 until 2021 throughout much of this contract. NASA Administrator Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL Ret.) fought for this work at KSC while a U.S. Senator. Nelson brought Cabana up to DC where he oversaw much of the agency including work being done on Artemis. This contract was awarded in 2019 when Cabana was running KSC and Kathy Lueders was running HEOMD. While Bechtel is certainly to blame for much of this mess – so is NASA – and the mismanagement of this contract starts at the very top of the agency inside the glass doors on the 9th floor.
I wonder how much stage zero and the launch tower for Starship at Boca Chica cost?
Oh, would I love to be able to make that comparison!
I remember a TV advert I saw years ago when an executive in a large corporation was talking about the one-woman-show coffee shop near his building and said ruefully: “Oh, what I’d give for overheads that small!” My point is that some of these big corporations are so inefficient that it is nearly impossible for them to match a vertically-integrated and vision-led operation like SpaceX for cost and schedule.
They simply do not have that ability. They just have too many people, too many subcontractors with their own margins and too many operational and infrastructure costs.
Costs aside. The Starbase 1 (Boca Chica) orbital launch & recovery facility will be ready in a few weeks. IIRC, SpaceX only started building the facility about the end 2020.
There are 5 out 8 tower blocks needed for the launch tower at pad LC-39A assemblyed at the Roberts Road facility waiting for the concrete in the launch mount base tubes to cured.
There is a possibility that SpaceX might have 2 pads ready for Starship launches by the end of year.
You cant because the space X tower is a completely different design and its a lot simpler .
Chopsticks to lift and mount the rocket as well as catch the returning stages is simpler?
So three years and nearly half a billion dollars in and Bechtel hasn’t even finished designing it yet? And it’s just an up-rated version of something they’ve built before? That’s impressive, in a way.
ML2 was approved so there wouldn’t be a three year delay between
Artemis III and IV. III is currently pencilled in for 2025, so ML2 needs
to be ready before 2028 to meet that goal. Do you think they’ll make it?
I can’t entirely blame Bechtel. Three and a half years in, and NASA still doesn’t have a fully frozen design for the Expedition Upper Stage. It’s hard for Bechtel to finalize the design for ML2 without knowing the requirements for the interface with EUS. Of course, NASA could have frozen the interface and made sure EUS conformed to it a long time ago. And Bechtel could have finalized the design for and started building the rest of ML2 a long time ago. The coordination between these two projects seems to be very poorly handled. So, no, I’m not holding my breath for this to be completed any time soon.
NASA – tries to refurbish a mobile transporter.
SpaceX – develops a reusable first stage rocket.
>>> What a couple $billion will get for each organization.
How many launches to Go to the moon ? 1 ,9, 14 ???
SLS can do it with one launch and there is a Launch escape system .
O.K. Say 14 launches at (Musk estimate) $2M per launch. No let’s say Musk is out by an order of magnitude – $20M a launch x 14 = $280M per lunar landing versus SLS $1B a flight every 2 years if you’re lucky. Which path represents the better value?
Right now 14 launches of an F9 could be done for less cost than an SLS and possibly a faster rep rate, too.
SLS can not go to the Moon. It can, at best, get the Orion capsule to a halo orbit around the Earth-Moon L1 point. To go the rest of the way, NASA needs a separately launched lander. For that, NASA selected a variant of the SpaceX Starship.
So let me understand bectel is building a modified copy of a tower they already built (that took a decade and $1B the first time) and after three years in yet nothing is built. Meanwhile in under two years SpaceX will design and build the towers, chopsticks, launch mounts, and the necessary tank farms at both Boca and ksc. Anyone want to hazard an estimate for what SpaceX will spend to rbing both facilities online?
Why isn’t THIS front and center on the various “space news” sites?
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… y
Because everyone has Elon on the brain.
You’d think with this recurring on so many projects that NASA would take actions to put an end to it. They have established their reputation as the agency that cannot get the job done.
Perhaps they need to work on their Project Management skills.