CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Five years behind schedule and expected to go $300 million over budget, Kennedy Space Center's plan to upgrade its 1970s-era launch computers is now another example that NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe is not bluffing about financial accountability.
NASA killed the Checkout Launch and Control System project Tuesday, citing missed deadlines and bloated spending. Despite all of the extra time and money, an independent review by NASA headquarters found the project would fall far short of its promised cost savings.
Instead of cutting the cost of running Launch Control Center computers in half as NASA promised back in 1997, the independent review found the new computer system -- even if could be completed -- was going to cost $15 million more per year to run than the existing Launch Processing System. So, NASA managers decided, there was no point in throwing more money into the project.
"This is showing the new administrator is trying to get some of this stuff under control," said Allen Li, an auditor with the General Accounting Office who authored a series of reports detailing the agency's inability to control costs on the International Space Station project. "This is illustrative of what he said the President wanted him to do: bring some financial discipline to NASA." Under O'Keefe, NASA has scrapped several high-profile projects such as the X-38 craft that might have become an eventual crew escape vehicle for the space station. Many times, the decision has been made despite multi-million dollar investments. Each time, it's been part of an effort to control costs for the space station.
NASA officials said Tuesday's decision is consistent with long-time efforts to review every one of the agency's programs on a regular basis to make sure they are meeting objectives.
"The question I hope is being asked is if this program was in such trouble, why did it take so long to figure that out," said John Pike, a space policy analyst with globalsecurity.org in Virginia. "It's not enough to identify programs that are in trouble and cancel them, but to figure out how they get in trouble and what changes or management controls need to be put in place so that you get them under control before they get so far gone."
Pike said it appears that is what O'Keefe and his deputies are attempting to do with NASA, under orders from Congress and President Bush to get spending under control after overspending by almost $5 billion on the International Space Station. The success of O'Keefe's reign as administrator may depend on whether future assessments are happening as programs develop rather than once they are beyond help. A policy of "shooting the wounded," Pike said, will not work forever.
In this case, a special review team was sent here by NASA headquarters in August to check out the program, according to internal NASA documents summarizing the recommendation to cancel the project. After a few weeks review, the document said "the team concluded the originally projected 50 percent reduction in operating costs and staffing would not be realized. The study also indicated that the CLCS would cost more to complete and ultimately to operate than originally projected."
Over the years, the documents said Kennedy Space Center has been upgrading its existing Launch Processing System, which includes technology dating back to the 1970s, as needed since the late 1980s. The old system, because of the upgrades, has functioned just fine in handling every shuttle launch so far, the review team's report said.
"The system is safe and viable to meet the projected needs of the shuttle program," the NASA report said. In addition, some of the equipment purchased and software developed for the CLCS may be able to be combined with the existing system. NASA gave the program's workers 60 days to work on just such questions, spokesman Bruce Buckingham said.
The contractors involved said they supported NASA's review. United Space Alliance spokeswoman Kari Fluegel said that designing space vehicles, hardware and computer systems is a complex job that often involves unforeseen costs and technical challenges.
"There were a number of those challenges in this system that would have done very unique things," Fluegel said. "There is no other computer system in the world required to launch the space shuttle. That poses a number of challenges. We kept addressing those, but that's thing, it's hard to predict those challenges at the very beginning."
There were warning signs about the program, which was supposed to be up and running, controlling space shuttle processing and launches by 2001 at the latest. But delays were inevitable, according to some who looked closely at the program.
Stephen Book, member of the Committee on Space Shuttle Upgrades, predicted in written testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1999 that a large, complex upgrade would likely experience schedule delays and budget overruns.
"The current system is growing obsolete, and the CLCS upgrade will replace it with modern commercial hardware and software," Book said in his testimony at the time. He recommended an audit then. It's unclear whether that happened or not.
Li said the General Accounting Office has not in the past and is not looking into the CLCS project.
In 1997, the estimated cost of completing the entire project was $207 million. By the time NASA made its fiscal year 2003 budget request, the estimate had grown to $399 million.
Program managers, asked by headquarters to update that assessment recently, said they thought they could get the job done for $478 million.
But the team that headquarters sent to check out the project said a more realistic estimate was somewhere between $488 million and $533 million.
The 570 people working on the Checkout Launch and Control Systems project were told to gather in a parking lot outside their offices at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) Tuesday.
That's where NASA delivered the news: the project employees had about 60 days to tie up the program's loose ends before it was complete. After almost $300 million spent and five years of work, NASA was ending the project because of missed deadlines and cost overruns.
Depending on whom they work for, the employees may face different fates.
The 110 project workers who are employed by NASA will be reassigned to space shuttle operations and other jobs at Kennedy Space Center, NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham said Tuesday.
The contractor employees, most of whom worked for United Space Alliance or Lockheed Martin, are more likely to lose their jobs although both companies said they are attempting to find other positions for them.
"We're going to try to make every effort to find other jobs for the employees impacted, and we should be able to minimize the impact of this," said Kari Fluegel, a spokeswoman with United Space Alliance, which had 168 people on the project. But she added that until the company gets specific information from NASA about what work remains to be finished to close out the project, it's too early to tell the immediate and long-term effect.
In Houston, Lockheed Martin spokesman Ron Meder said the company employed 140 on the computer upgrade. He also said Lockheed is trying to find alternate work for them, but sounded less optimistic.
"We always try to do that," Meder said. "But with the NASA budgets, we've had loss of employees all year. It'll be much harder."
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright © 2002 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
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