Hike in NASA’s budget due to poor management of projects

Washington, November 24: NASA’s badly managed projects are not only increasing the amount of money required to complete a project but also affecting the execution and completion of other important programs.

This flaw in managing various projects became evident last month when NASA decided to spend about $100 million more on a project called Mars Science Laboratory. Also, the cost of making a robotic rover has tripled since its inception.

Despite the huge amount of money spent in the project it is still behind the schedule and moreover, there is no certainty that it will get completed within the currently available budget. NASA has not revealed the collateral damage that has affected other projects and activities.

As of now, the Mars Science Laboratory is scheduled to be launched next year and NASA has decided to put more money in this project. This decision clearly shows the poor management of finances related to various projects.

Furthermore, the amount of money required for the completion of another project called the James Webb Space Telescope has exceeded its initial estimated amount of nearly $1 billion to approximately $5 billion. And this is not the end as there is a long list of badly managed projects.

The cost of NASA’s next two weather satellites- which NASA is making for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - has come to be $3.5 billion each. Other projects that are in the list are N.P.P., S.D.O., LISA Pathfinder, Constellation and more.

This long list reflects the inefficiency and ignorance on the part of NASA and its officials. In various projects’ lack of cost effectiveness can be seen clearly.

Also, in 2007, an internal accounting revealed about $5 billion rise (since 2003) in expenses within NASA’s science directorate alone.

The cost of a project overruns when scientists and engineers innovate new and expensive features for a project (which is more or less wasteful and unnecessary effort). The real problem arises when these innovations are encouraged and approved by the managers and contractors which in turn increases the time required to finish a project and the overall budget of the project.