Back to the Moon

Budget Considerations
Here's an article about the projected budget of the missions back to the moon.

Some government auditors worry that NASA could come up billions of dollars short of the money needed to return U.S. astronauts to the moon.

However, the space agency says it already is closing that long-term funding gap by making money-saving design changes to its proposed Orion spaceships and the Ares rockets that will launch them.

Those and other changes made since NASA first estimated the cost of going back to the moon are making people inside the agency more confident they can complete the project on time and within its budget. Today, NASA plans to reveal details about what astronauts will do on the moon and how they will do it.

However, congressional auditors fear that NASA is repeating mistakes made in development of the space shuttle, International Space Station and several failed shuttle replacement programs and could be on track to run up billions of dollars worth of cost overruns. The Government Accountability Office is asking NASA to slow its investment of taxpayer dollars in the project.

Scott "Doc" Horowitz, NASA's man in charge of the moon-landing project, said the agency is pressing ahead because it has solid engineering and cost information for a project that involves development of spaceships and rockets using designs and components with a long track record of proven success.

NASA is keenly aware that failure to bring the project to fruition safely, on time and within budget could threaten the agency's future, he said.

"NASA needs to improve on its credibility," Horowitz said in a wide-ranging interview with FLORIDA TODAY on the challenges facing the moon-landing project. "It's been a while since we've been able to execute a program like this. The best way to improve credibility is to execute. We need to prove it."

Ah, the normal pressures of project management!