NASA contracted with two companies, Boeing and SpaceX, to develop vehicles to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. Neither is expected to be ready until 2019. Before any missions happen, NASA will have to certify that both contractors' vehicles are safe for human spaceflight. One way that NASA will assess safety is the loss of crew metric, which captures the probability of a c...

This testimony highlights our 10th annual Quick Look report on the status of NASA's major projects. Many of them experienced significant cost and schedule growth in the past year. NASA is likely to keep seeing cost and schedule growth because complex new projects are starting up, and other expensive projects are taking longer to launch than expected. The full extent of cost growth was unknown be...

In our 10th annual Quick Look at the status of NASA's major projects, we found that many of these projects experienced significant cost and schedule growth over the past year. The average launch delay was 12 months—the most we've ever reported. However, the extent of cost growth for the portfolio of projects is unknown because NASA doesn't have a current cost estimate for the Orion crew vehicle...

The James Webb Space Telescope, the planned successor to the Hubble Telescope, is one of NASA’s most complex and expensive projects. NASA recently announced that JWST's launch would be delayed several months, from October 2018 to no later than June 2019, because components of the telescope are taking longer to integrate than planned. Based on the amount of work NASA has to complete before JWST...

NASA is developing 3 programs to put astronauts into space—the Orion crew vehicle, Space Launch System, and Exploration Ground Systems. All 3 programs must work together. We found challenges in NASA's approach to integrating these programs. For example, the technical authorities for engineering and safety also have program roles that include managing resources. When technical authorities must a...

NASA is developing 3 systems to put astronauts into space—the Orion crew vehicle, Space Launch System, and Exploration Ground Systems. NASA will need these systems for its human space exploration goals, including sending astronauts to the moon as soon as 2024. We’ve been concerned about how NASA is managing these large and complex efforts. Past reports have noted that schedules were overly op...

NASA contracted with two companies, Boeing and SpaceX, to develop vehicles to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. Before any missions can happen, NASA will have to certify that both contractors' vehicles are safe for human spaceflight. But both contractors have run into chronic delays. While both contractors originally planned to be certified in 2017, now neither is expected...

Federal agencies operate thousands of data centers and since 2010 have been required to close unneeded facilities and improve the performance of the remaining centers. Across the government, agencies have closed 6,250 centers to date and saved $2.7 billion. However, only 2 agencies in our review planned to meet September 2018 government-wide optimization goals that include, for example, a target...

The performance of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) portfolio of major projects has improved in the areas of cost and schedule growth since GAO’s first assessment in 2009. Average development cost growth and schedule delay for the current portfolio have decreased to about a third of their 2009 levels.These figures exclude the cost and schedule growth of the Jame...

While Congress has tasked FAA to lead the effort of safely integrating unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the national airspace, several federal and other entities also have a role. FAA has established various mechanisms to facilitate collaboration with these entities. For example, FAA has entered into formal agreements with the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Aeronautics and Space Ad...

The Air Force based its Guide on existing NASA policy and procedures with respect to payload risk classification and launch vehicle certification. Payloads are classified based in part on factors such as national significance, payload complexity and cost, and are assigned a risk tolerance level accordingly. The Air Force, NASA, and NRO are working to coordinate and share information to facilitate...

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has provided significantly more time and money to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) than previously planned and expressed high confidence in the project's new baselines. Its current cost estimate reflects some features of best practices for developing reliable and credible estimates. For example, the estimate substantially meets one of f...

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) 10 major spaceflight projects discussed in this report have not yet fully implemented earned value management (EVM). As a result, NASA is not taking full advantage of opportunities to use an important tool that could help reduce acquisition risk. GAO assessed the 10 projects against three fundamental EVM practices that, according to GAO's...

GAO identified 15 key aerostat and airship efforts that were underway or had been initiated since 2007, and the Department of Defense (DOD) had or has primary responsibility for all of these efforts. None of the civil agency efforts met GAO's criteria for a key effort. Most of the aerostat and airship efforts have been fielded or completed, and are intended to provide intelligence, surveillance, a...

Civilian agencies did not fully comply with statutory requirements for compiling fiscal year 2011 service contract inventories. For example, because the information is not currently readily available, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed the 49 agencies that were required to submit inventories to defer the collection of three statutorily required data elements for each contract--the...