Author Topic: NASA OIG report scrutinizes Orion’s cost overruns and transparency  (Read 389 times)

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Houston Chronicle by  Andrea Leinfelder July 16, 2020 Updated: July 17, 2020 9:04 a.m.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft, being developed in Houston, is on track to be roughly $1.4 billion over budget and two years behind schedule when it launches astronauts for the first time in 2023, according to a report released Thursday by NASA’s Office of Inspector General.

The OIG criticized NASA for paying performance bonuses to prime contractor Lockheed Martin despite the cost overruns and delays, and it also faulted the agency for not tracking all costs associated with the Orion Program.

Such issues — and NASA’s transparency in addressing them — were highlighted in Thursday’s audit, which provided a glimpse into a capsule nearly 15 years (and many presidential priority changes) in the making.

“The changing requirements associated with these programmatic directives — from docking with the International Space Station (ISS) to rendezvousing with an asteroid and most recently to return to the surface of the moon by 2024 — have created significant challenges for the program,” the report said.

Between 2015 and 2019, these challenges included valve design, display units and flight software that contributed to $900 million in cost growth. An additional $520 million, bringing the total to roughly $1.4 billion, is expected through 2023 for work that includes the spacecraft’s life support and propulsion systems, among other things.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/NASA-OIG-report-scrutinizes-Orion-s-cost-15414354.php