Author Topic: JWST and SLS drive up cost and schedule growth on NASA programs  (Read 612 times)

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Space News by Jeff Foust — June 3, 2019

NASA is suffering growing problems with cost and schedule on its major programs, driven by continued issues with two of its highest profile efforts.

In its annual “Assessments of Major Projects” report issued May 30, the Government Accountability Office found that average cost growth and schedule delay for large NASA programs grew in 2018, with the expectation of further growth.

“The cost and schedule performance of NASA’s portfolio of major projects continues to deteriorate,” the report bluntly concluded. The average schedule delay for NASA programs grew in 2018 to 13 months, the highest recorded by the GAO since it started its annual survey of NASA programs a decade ago. Cost growth rose to 27.6 percent, the highest since 2014.

The biggest factor in the increase is the James Webb Space Telescope. Last year NASA delayed the launch of the mission to March 2021 and said its cost would increase by about $800 million because of several problems during integration and testing of the observatory’s spacecraft element. Since its 2009 baseline, JWST’s total cost estimate has grown by 95 percent, from just under $5 billion to nearly $9.7 billion, while its launch has been delayed by nearly seven years.

More: https://spacenews.com/jwst-and-sls-drive-up-cost-and-schedule-growth-on-nasa-programs/