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posted by martyb on Wednesday March 11 2020, @06:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the keep-the-taxpayer-money-flowing dept.

NASA OIG: Tell Congress that moon rocket is over budget and behind schedule:

NASA's moon rocket has reached a point in cost overruns and delays that should trigger Congressional review, a report by the NASA Inspector General says.

The NASA Office of Inspector General said the Space Launch System rocket being developed to fly astronauts to the moon exceeded cost and schedule baselines by more than 30 percent at the end of fiscal year 2019. That 30 percent threshold should prompt Congressional attention, the OIG said, though NASA disagreed.

"NASA continues to struggle managing SLS (Space Launch System) Program costs and schedule as the launch date for the first integrated SLS/Orion mission slips further," according to the report released Tuesday. "Rising costs and delays can be attributed to challenges with program management, technical issues, and contractor performance."

<sarcasm>News of SLS being behind schedule and over budget will come as a shock to many. But we should take comfort that no problem is so great it cannot be solved by throwing more taxpayer money at it.</sarcasm>


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  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday March 11 2020, @07:32PM (6 children)

    by Freeman (732) on Wednesday March 11 2020, @07:32PM (#969771) Journal

    You stuff more and more money into it at some point, it has to produce something.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Wednesday March 11 2020, @08:09PM (5 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 11 2020, @08:09PM (#969787) Journal

    it has to produce something.

    Waste.

    Jobs in Alabama.

    The more money you put into it the more you justify putting more money into it later because you've already put so much into it. (See: sunk cost)

    Lessons about how "new space" companies beat "old space" companies and their ways of thinking and contracting.

    An object lesson in how bloated and inefficient the "old space" companies have become. And their other aerospace problems (737 Max, Starliner). SpaceX bid less on its Dragon 2 than Boeing bid on Starliner. Yet which one will fly first. Boeing bragged that its higher bid was justified because of its experience and safety record. Yet the latest report about starliner is about "almost loss of mission" issues. And 737 Max is pure safety issues from mismanagement.

    At nearly $1 Billion dollars per SLS launch (audited), NASA can only afford to fly it maybe once a year at best and maybe less. If we had never done SLS, how much would we have wasted by not using those old shuttle engines again? A single SLS launch could buy ten Falcon Heavy launches.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday March 11 2020, @08:20PM (3 children)

      by Freeman (732) on Wednesday March 11 2020, @08:20PM (#969792) Journal

      SpaceX has done so much in such a short time period, I think it took everyone by surprise. Saying you want to make space rockets and actually making viable space rockets are two totally separate things. SpaceX has done a superb job and thanks to them, I might actually see some cool footage from the Moon/Mars in my lifetime. While a rover is interesting and all, having a person there doing things, taking pictures, taking samples, doing science, that would be super awesome.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Wednesday March 11 2020, @08:29PM (2 children)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 11 2020, @08:29PM (#969798) Journal

        It might not be possible to send people anytime soon. But it would be nice to see some real progress. More rovers. Robots setting up bases for eventual human occupation. Producing fuel from local Martian resources to refuel return vehicles. Have fully fueled return vehicles ready before the first humans ever land.

        These things might drive the need for technologies that have a lot of unanticipated spin off applications for every day people.

        Dehydrated water.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @02:34AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @02:34AM (#970029)

          HO HO HO very funny.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 13 2020, @02:27AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 13 2020, @02:27AM (#970510)

            Ok. Wow. This blew up.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @02:29AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @02:29AM (#970026)

      SLS seems to be having some of the same QA problems as the Boeing USAF aerial tanker contract.