It's like calling a lunar Uber instead of buying your own moon buggy. Instead, the agency is asking a commercial partner for a ride to the surface. The new way is the lunar lander.īYRNE: The lunar lander, set to fly with the Artemis III mission, will be built on a very different model. LENHARDT: So that's the classic NASA old-school way of doing things. For Artemis, Lockheed is building the capsule, and Boeing is developing the core stage of the rocket that will get it into space. He says that's basically the same blueprint as the agency's Apollo moon missions, which took astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and '70s. Once they're done, they'll hand it over to NASA, and then NASA will take over the rest of the flight.īYRNE: Douglas Lenhardt is a supply chain leader for the agency. The operation is run by Orion's prime contractor, Lockheed Martin.ĭOUGLAS LENHARDT: Lockheed Martin is a commercial company, right? They're making the spacecraft for NASA. Their spacecraft sits in a massive building, along with two more capsules that are also being readied for future missions to the lunar surface. And the attention to detail just makes it very clear that they're focused on getting us there, but most important, back safely.īYRNE: NASA's Victor Glover is piloting the Artemis II mission, along with Commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialists Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen. VICTOR GLOVER: I mean, looking at this beautiful spacecraft, it's amazing how much hard work has gone into it. From member station WMFE, Brendan Byrne reports the Artemis program represents a turning point in both where NASA is heading and how it's getting there.īRENDAN BYRNE, BYLINE: At the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the crew of Artemis II stand in front of the Orion spacecraft, the capsule that will take them more than a quarter of a million miles from home to a place no human has been in more than half a century. The three NASA astronauts and one Canadian are set to launch to the moon on a flyby mission at the end of next year, part of NASA's new moon program called Artemis. Finding a way to limit the spillover effect from major programs cost overruns is a key lesson from the JWST project history.The four astronauts heading to the moon have met the spacecraft that will get them there. As a result, some new projects at NASA are planned to launch later than anticipated, at least in part, because of other projects’ cost overruns. In 2013, NASA reallocated funding from four science divisions to cover half of an additional $1.4 billion needed by the JWST project. For example, when projects exhaust their available funding, that limits NASA’s ability to fund other missions or start new ones. These cost overruns can have a cascading effect on NASA’s ability to manage its major programs. Our recent NASA Quick Look report assesses NASA’s portfolio of major acquisition programs, and found that JWST was one of the primary drivers of delay and cost overruns for its entire portfolio in recent years. NASA faced a number of technology and testing challenges during its development of the JWST, which not only delayed its launch, but also significantly increased costs. Lesson one: manage large project costs to limit cascading effects on others
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