Apr 23 1998

From The Space Library

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Current revision

The Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force, an independent task force convened at the request of NASA and charged with analyzing the cost and schedule of constructing and maintaining the ISS, released its official report. The task force concluded that "program size, complexity, and ambitious schedule goals were beyond that which could be reasonably achieved within the [US]$2.1 billion annual cap or [US]$17.4 billion total cap." The task force concluded that "the International Space Station will be delayed by up to three years and cost as much as [US]$250 million more per year relative to the FY 1999 budget submission," recommending that NASA "revise the current station plan so that it is achievable with the funds available." NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, who had appointed Jay Chabrow to lead the task force, told members of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies that he would not accept the task force's conclusions, because he had not yet fully reviewed the report. Goldin told the panel that everyone involved in the space station program was very concerned about cost overruns and schedule slips, but that if Congress imposed a cap on ISS funding, it could affect the schedule significantly, delaying the project up to two years. Goldin warned, "such a funding shortfall would hurt relations with the international partners." The report also placed much of the blame for the budget and schedule issues on Russia. In 1993 the Clinton administration and top officials at NASA had advised Congress that, were Russia not involved in the project, NASA would "save an estimated [US]$2 billion, expand the station's capabilities and enable the research station to be completed sooner." However, the task force's report concluded that "those assumptions were faulty."

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