TIM FURNISS / LONDON
Independent task force says NASA cannot complete assembly on its current budget
NASA's management of the International Space Station (ISS) and its budget have been slammed by an independent task force set up by the agency to investigate budget overruns and management problems.
The ISS Independent Management and Cost Evaluation team says NASA will be unable to complete assembly of a fully functional ISS by 2006 within its remaining $8.3 billion budget.
It is also impossible to assess the cost of the programme so far due to NASA's poor and misleading accounting skills, says the task force, headed by former Martin Marietta president Thomas Young. The ISS has gone $13 billion over budget in four years, according to the group, which predicts the total cost of the station could reach $95 billion by the time assembly is completed.
The task force criticises NASA for managing the budget on a year-by-year basis rather than controlling the entire programme, and highlights questionable contractor costs which remain unchecked. The task force indicates that, despite other assembly options, it is likely that the ISS will continue to operate as a three-crew, rather than six-crew base. The scientific potential of the station - its original justification - must be maintained, even with a smaller crew, it says. This will be difficult, however, since the six-crew habitation module has been cancelled and science equipment delayed, including a centrifuge module, now unlikely to be flown to the station until 2008.
The task force highlights potential $6.7 billion cost savings over the next five years through reducing the number of Space Shuttle flights to the ISS from six to four a year. Six crew could operate at the ISS for a month if the Soyuz TM crew return vehicle swap-over system is extended from its current seven-day period, while the Space Shuttle could remain attached to the ISS for a month, with the use of an enhanced Extended Duration Orbiter fuel cell system, it suggests.
The programme is also criticised for being over-manned, and staff cuts of up to 1,000, including jobs at control centres at Houston and Huntsville, are suggested, as the ISS is also managed from a mission control centre in Russia.
The next mission to the ISS will be conducted by a Russian Progress tanker, preceding the Space Shuttle Endeavour STS 108 on a logistics and crew exchange mission on 29 November.
Source: Flight International
