Space Station:

NASA Efforts To Establish a Design-To-Life-Cycle Cost Process

NSIAD-88-147: Published: May 5, 1988. Publicly Released: May 5, 1988.

Additional Materials:

Contact:

Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
youngc1@gao.gov

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) implementation of cost control measures for space station operations.

GAO found that NASA: (1) reviewed its efforts to establish a programwide design-to-life-cycle policy after an inconclusive attempt in 1986; (2) was considering a draft directive to help establish a management system to assess design proposals' life-cycle cost impacts under current budget constraints; and (3) did not establish operations cost benchmarks and objectives during the program's definition phase or a reporting system to track progress against those objectives. GAO also found that NASA: (1) expected to use contract award fees as incentives to control life-cycle costs, but needed to develop criteria on which to base the awards; (2) did not establish a dedicated reserve fund because it believed that would encourage contractors to initially withhold life-cycle cost-reduction concepts and request reserve funds to support such ideas; (3) developed an operations concept and operations cost-estimating model to improve its cost-estimating capability; and (4) expected to complete its new policy and procedures after mid-1988 and to begin the bulk of the station's design and development after 1989.

Dec 22, 2020

Dec 15, 2020

Apr 30, 2020

Apr 29, 2020

Jan 29, 2020

Jan 28, 2020

Dec 19, 2019

Sep 18, 2019

Jun 20, 2019

Jun 19, 2019

Looking for more? Browse all our products here