Explaining NASA Cost Overruns and Delays to Congress

GAO Report: NASA: Assessments of Selected Large-Scale Projects
“GAO assessed 18 NASA projects with a combined life-cycle cost of more than $50 billion. Of those, 10 out of 13 projects that had entered the implementation phase experienced significant cost and/or schedule growth. For these 10 projects, development costs increased by an average of 13 percent from baseline cost estimates that were established just 2 or 3 years ago and they had an average launch delay of 11-months. In some cases, cost growth was considerably higher than what is reported because it had occurred prior to the most recent baseline. Many of the projects we reviewed experienced challenges in developing new technologies or retrofi tting older technologies as well as in managing their contractors, and more generally, understanding the risks and challenges they were up against when they started their efforts.”
House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Hearing: Cost Management Issues in NASA’s Acquisitions and Programs. Thursday, March 5, 2009
Mr. Christopher Scolese, Acting Administrator, NASA
Ms. Cristina T. Chaplain, Director, Acquisition and Sourcing Management, Government Accountability Office
Mr. Gary P. Pulliam, Vice President, Civil and Commercial Operations, The Aerospace Corporation