The final audit of the agency's efforts to build a massive tower meant to facilitate the launch of crewed missions to the moon is bad news for the space agency.
NASA's contract with tower builder Bechtel has been an absolute disaster, with the agency spending at least a billion dollars more than originally planned, according to a damning report.
The delivery of the tower will be 2.5 years longer than originally planned. According to an analysis by the office's Independent Review Team, the program's first crewed mission to the moon could be set back to the end of the 20th century.
According to NASA's original contract with Bechtel, the ML-2 was supposed to be delivered in March of 2020.
The country's return to the moon could be delayed due to this dilemma. The Trump administration was selling Congress on the idea of astronauts going back to the moon by 2024.
The cost of that date has ballooned. The SLS has been mired in massive budget overruns and years of delays.
The platform meant to facilitate the launch of two special configurations of the SLS, Block 1B and Block 2, is proving to be quite the disaster.
The design of NASA's first Mobile Launcher doesn't allow for the launch of these configurations and won't be very useful for crewed launches.
The OIG isn't giving in and is ready to take responsibility. The report states that the delays and budget overruns can be blamed on poor performance by Bechtel.
According to the report, NASA is to blame for half of the award fees being given to the contractor.
NASA should make sure cost estimates are accurate and well established before entering any new contracts, according to the Inspector General. Award fees should only be given out if there is a documented reason for it.
The whole world watches as NASA finds itself in an unfortunate situation.
There is a report that says something very bad might be going to go down at NASA.
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