NASA management has agreed to all eight recommendations. The report recommends that upcoming work be shifted to a fixed-price regime and that procurement issues be resolved, among others. The Inspector General also blames the use of "cost-plus" contracts that allow suppliers to inflate budgets more easily, instead of fixed-priced contracts. The latter has been the biggest issue, increasing from $2.5 billion to $4.4 billion since Artemis was announced, and delaying the schedule by five years. "However, the complexity of developing, updating, and integrating new systems along with heritage components proved to be much greater than anticipated."įor instance, only 5 of the 16 engine adaptations have been completed, and scope and cost increases have hit the booster contract as well. ![]() "These increases are caused by interrelated issues such as assumptions that the use of heritage technologies from the Space Shuttle and Constellation Programs were expected to result in significant cost and schedule savings compared to developing new systems for the SLS," the audit states. The older technology isn't helping with the budget as NASA expected, though. It also uses solid rocket boosters provided by Northrop Grumman. Once those run out (all engines on SLS are expendable), NASA will switch to RS-25E engines being built by Aerojet Rocketdyne, which are supposed to be 30 percent cheaper and 11 percent more powerful. ![]() The SLS, which finally launched for the first time in November 2022, uses four RS-25 engines per launch, including 16 salvaged from retired Space Shuttles.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |