NASA GAO Report: NASA’s Compliance with the Payment Integrity Information Act for Fiscal Year 2021 “We found that NASA was not in compliance with PIIA for FY 2021 because it did not publish improper payment estimates for the Space Launch Sy stem (SLS) program in the accompanying materials to the AFR as required by the statute. In our FY 2019 improper payment compliance audit, we reported that NASA failed to […]

NASA’s Cost Estimating and Reporting Practices for Multi-Mission Programs “Congress is not receiving the federally mandated cost and schedule information it needs to make fully informed funding decisions for NASAs multi-mission programs. Specifically, for the programs supporting Artemis, the Agencys return-to- the-Moon and ultimately to Mars effort, NASA is circumventing required cost and schedule controls by categorizing certain production costs as operations costs when, in our opinion, they should be […]

NASA OIG: NASA’s Insider Threat Program “While NASA has a fully operational insider threat program for its classified systems, the vast majority of the Agencys information technology (IT) systems including many containing high-value assets or critical infrastructure are unclassified and are therefore not covered by its current insider threat program. Consequently, the Agency may be facing a higher-than-necessary risk to its unclassified systems and data. … Further amplifying the complexities […]

NASA’s Management of the International Space Station and Efforts to Commercialize Low Earth Orbit, NASA OIG “… Under the Agency’s current plans, both health risk mitigation and technology demonstrations will not be complete by 2030 – the expected retirement date of the ISS. Consequently, a substantial gap between the Station’s retirement and the introduction of a new, commercial destination in low Earth orbit would force NASA to accept a higher […]

Keith’s note: This is the report “NASA’s Construction Of Facilities” [posted by the NASA OIG this morning. PDF. Interesting topic given all of the Infrastructure money NASA is going to get. Too bad it is an empty document. I don’t think @NASAOIG really follows Twitter – indeed, they only follow one account: @COVID_Oversight. You’d think that they;d follow at least one or two @NASA accounts. Update: It took @NASAOIG several […]

NASA OIG: NASA’s Cybersecurity Readiness, NASA OIG “The Chief Information Officer (CIO) has struggled to implement an effective IT governance structure that aligns authority and responsibility with the Agency’s overall mission. … In FY 2020, the OCIO spent $278 million on IT, $74 million of which was budgeted for institutional cybersecurity. Separate from the OCIO, mission offices in FY 2020 invested $169 million on missionbased cyber management at locations around […]

NASA OIG: NASA’s Efforts to Mitigate the Risks Posed by Orbital Debris, OIG “Despite presidential and congressional directives to NASA over the past decade to develop active debris removal technologies, the Agency has made little to no progress on such efforts. Moreover, debris removal technologies from international agencies and commercial entities are in the early stages of development and testing. … We found that NASA models of the orbital debris […]

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 […]

Report of NASA’s Top Management and Performance Challenges, OIG “Challenge 3: Sustaining a Human Presence in Low Earth Orbit NASA’s plan for the ISS, as detailed in the President’s FY 2021 budget request, envisions new commercial facilities and platforms in low Earth orbit. This plan includes a request for $150 million for commercialization of low Earth orbit. The effectiveness of this plan while continuing to provide substantial funding to maintain […]

NASA OIG: NASA’s Management Of Its Acquisition Workforce “In addition, 95 percent of NASA’s certified acquisition workforce met continuous learning requirements needed to maintain their certification in the reporting periods we evaluated. However, the Agency’s migration to the Federal Acquisition Institute Training Application System (FAITAS), the official system of record for acquisition programs, is incomplete. As such, NASA relies on multiple systems and stakeholders to manage these certification programs, reducing […]