NASA Fail: SLS/Orion “Unsustainable”

khallow writes:

Eric Berger reports ("Finally, we know production costs for SLS and Orion, and they're wild", Ars Technica):

NASA Inspector General Paul Martin serves as an independent watchdog for the space agency's myriad activities. For nearly the entirety of his time as inspector general, since his appointment in 2009, Martin has tracked NASA's development of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.Although his office has issued a dozen reports or so on various aspects of these programs, he has never succinctly stated his thoughts about the programs-until Tuesday.

Appearing before a House Science Committee hearing on NASA's Artemis program [Wikipedia description], Martin revealed the operational costs of the big rocket and spacecraft for the first time. Moreover, he took aim at NASA and particularly its large aerospace contractors for their "very poor" performance in developing these vehicles.

Martin said that the operational costs alone for a single Artemis launch-for just the rocket, Orion spacecraft, and ground systems-will total $4.1 billion. This is, he said, "a price tag that strikes us as unsustainable." With this comment, Martin essentially threw down his gauntlet and said NASA cannot have a meaningful exploration program based around SLS and Orion at this cost.

In his testimony to the Committee, IG Martin states:

Our broad, years-long oversight has identified several interrelated challenges NASA must address toachieve its ambitious Artemis goals, including unsustainable costs, a lack of transparency into fundingrequirements, and risks associated with its modified program management and acquisition practicesdesigned to reduce costs and accelerate the mission schedule.

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