Oct 29 2003
From The Space Library
The GAO presented testimony to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space regarding the impact of the Shuttle fleet's grounding on ISS construction and maintenance. Based on a GAO report published in September, a report that the full Senate committee had requested, GAO testified that the grounding of the Shuttle fleet would increase the cost of completing the ISS and could expose the station's two-person crew to additional risk. NASA had originally estimated the cost of the ISS at US$10 billion, but since 1985, the U.S. Congress had appropriated US$32 billion to the project. The Bush administration had cancelled several planned ISS modules in 2001, to offset US$4 billion in cost overruns. Since the grounding of the Shuttle fleet following the Columbia disaster in February 2003, several components of the station~completed and ready to launch~had reached their storage limit, necessitating their replacement or refurbishment. The inability to ferry heavy items to the ISS had hampered NASA's ability to correct known safety concerns, such as the delivery of additional shielding to protect the ISS crew dormitory from orbital debris. Furthermore, NASA had estimated that the probability of space debris penetrating ISS living quarters increased by 1.6 percent for each year that the ISS partners postponed installing new shielding. The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation had requested the report from GAO. Members of Congress had repeatedly asked NASA to provide financial details about the effect of the Columbia accident on the ISS program. However, GAO's September report stated that neither NASA nor GAO could accurately estimate the costs associated with the grounded Shuttle fleet. GAO testified that it would be able to make such am estimate once NASA had identified precisely when Shuttle flights would resume. NASA officials agreed with GAO's findings.(U.S. General Accounting Office, “Shuttle Fleet's Safe Return to Flight is Key to Space Station Progress” (report no. GAO-04-201T, Washington, DC, 29 October 2003), 1-11, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04201t.pdf (accessed 8 May 2009); Marc Carreau, “Costs Up for Space Station, Report Says,” Houston Chronicle, 15 October 2003; Larry Wheeler, “Report: Shuttle's Absence Hurts ISS, GAO Claims Station Is in 'Survival Mode',” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 15 October 2003.
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