An independent assessment of NASA’s plans for a new heavy-lift rocket and space capsule dubs the agency’s projected costs as optimistic and not suited for long-term planning.
The space agency released yesterday an executive summary of the assessment consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton conducted on the Space Launch System (SLS), Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), and 21st Century Ground System (21CGS) programs. The SLS includes a new heavy-lift vehicle, and the MPCV includes a future spacecraft for missions beyond low-Earth orbit.
Lawmakers had been waiting for the independent assessment as they kept a close eye on NASA’s new manned-spaceflight effort. Though President Barack Obama cancelled Constellation, former President George W. Bush’s underfunded program to return astronauts to the moon, the new effort retains some of the work done on the Orion crew capsule Lockheed Martin had been developing for Constellation.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, portrayed the new Booz Allen Hamilton report as confirming that NASA should have moved faster on approving the new vehicle-design concept.
“While I have concerns that the funding levels and schedule contained in the assessment do not achieve the timeline for a return to U.S. manned spaceflight as required in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, the administration should immediately announce a formal decision approving the vehicle design concept and prevent the loss of even more jobs and the further deterioration of our human space flight capabilities,” she said in a statement last Friday, after committee staff had been briefed on the report.
Booz Allen Hamilton assessed NASA’s cost and schedule estimates for the manned-spaceflight efforts. It concluded, in its executive summary of its final report, that the “cost estimates prepared by the SLS, MPCV, and 21CGS programs are consistent with pre-concept, (Analysis of Alternatives)-phase estimates and thus are not suitable for long-term budget formulation or the development of program baselines.”
The consultancy advised NASA treat the estimates “as serviceable point estimates for budget planning” of the next three to five years and calls them “the basis upon which future estimates can be constructed.”
Still, Booz Allen Hamilton warned that because of “unjustified, sometimes substantial, assumed future cost savings,” it viewed the estimates for all three programs “as optimistic.” It said NASA “cannot have full confidence in the estimates for long-term planning.”
The consultancy advised NASA to take corrective action including working to discern the full lifecycle cost of each program.
Hutchison said she is “very concerned about continuing delays” with the Space Launch System. The 2010 NASA Authorization Act, signed into law last October, called for NASA to release its planned approach for the new heavy-lift rocket and related equipment by last Jan. 11. Irked by NASA’s delay in announcing a design decision, Hutchison and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) subpoenaed information on the design plans from NASA on July 27.
“While that investigation is ongoing, I reiterate my call to NASA and the Administration to proceed with its SLS development program immediately, in compliance with the law,” Hutchison said.
NASA’s work to develop the SLS has been underway for more than a year. The agency released a Broad Agency Announcement on June 29, 2010 seeking input from industry on the heavy-lift vehicle. While NASA Administrator Charles Bolden confirmed to Hutchison and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) last month that he had decided on a plan for a new heavy-lift rocket, the White House has been waiting for the Booz Allen Hamilton assessment before making an announcement.
Hutchison maintains that thousands of lost jobs tied to the Constellation program could have been saved if NASA moved faster on the replacement effort.