The highly anticipated premiere of NASA's Space Launch System rocket is expected to face a new push right, this time beyond mid-2020, as the program faces billions of cost overruns and years late, according to a scathing audit made public Wednesday by the office of the Inspector General of the agency.

Originally scheduled for launch of the Kennedy Space Center's 39B platform in December 2017, a version of the rocket called SLS Block 1 (322 feet) in height will likely not be prepared for a take-off from the Mission Exploration- 1 unprepared between December 2019 and June 2020., said the BIG.

Even though the teams could technically meet this deadline, NASA is expected to offer Boeing, the contractor selected for the first two stages, an injection of $ 1.2 billion: $ 800 million to guarantee the delivery of the first stage to KSC by December 2019 and an additional $ 400 million. Make sure that EM-1 will be launched by June 2020.

But even with this level of funding, a launch of June 2020 is still unlikely, said the BIG.

"As a result, in light of the project's development delays, we concluded that NASA would not be able to meet its currently scheduled EM-1 launch window between December 2019 and June 2020," said part of the report. 50 pages.

Wednesday's report, the first of a series of projects on SLS, aimed primarily at managing the program by NASA and Boeing itself. In August, NASA spent $ 11.9 billion on the Orion high-capacity launch system and satellite, originally designed to catapult humans beyond their low-Earth orbit and into space. 39, deep space.

"At the current rate, we expect Boeing to spend at least $ 8.9 billion by 2021, double the amount originally planned, while delivery of the first Core Stage decreased by two-and-a-half years from June 2017 and December 2019 and could further decline, "the OIG said. "The cost increases and development delays of Core Stage are largely due to management, technical and infrastructure issues related to Boeing's poor performance."

Several of these problems contributed to the $ 4 billion cost overrun and delay in the delivery of the rocket stages, including:

• Boeing's underestimation of the magnitude of the work and the lack of well-staffed teams.
• The equipment required for the second stage tests is two years behind schedule.
• Equipment problems and extreme weather events.

"In addition, Boeing's cost and scheduling issues are likely to worsen as the SLS has not yet undergone its" green operating test "- a major step that integrates and tests components. of the main phase, "says the report.

About the agency, the OIG reported that several "bad NASA management practices" had contributed to these overruns, including:

• The agency lacks visibility into Boeing's costs as all of its SLS activities have been combined into one contract. This means that NASA can not extrapolate, for example, the cost of a single step.
• Flaws in the evaluation of Boeing's performance by NASA, sometimes judged "excellent" and "very good".
• $ 321 million in unauthorized expenditures through the appropriate channels.
• NASA estimates that it takes 52 months to acquire one main milestone, jeopardizing the viability of future missions. To date, the agency has ordered only two main stages due to delays and overruns, which means that missions beyond the first two might be at risk.

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In the future, according to the OIG, NASA could pursue the sustainability of the program by following seven recommendations. In response, NASA agreed with all but one.

"NASA has already recognized the opportunity to improve contract performance management in this large-scale program prior to auditing this BIG," the response says. "The OIG draft report is a fair assessment of NASA's management of the SLS Core Stages contract and its challenges, and the OIG's recommendations are consistent with the work being done at NASA."

The Office of the Inspector General of NASA is responsible for investigating potential cases of fraud, waste and misuse of programs impacting the agency.

Contact Emre Kelly at [email protected] or 321-242-3715. Follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on @EmreKelly.

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