Faster and Cheaper, but Not Better

ince NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin introduced his "faster, better, cheaper" management philosophy in 1992, the space agency has had some impressive achievements. As Goldin told a Senate appropriations panel in April, NASA launched 146 payloads valued at a total of $18 billion in the past eight years; all but 10 missions were successful.

But after two recent high-profile failed missions to Mars, NASA has come under fire for perhaps reaching too high with its limited resources and for not holding contractors to their obligations. Even Goldin admitted to a Senate panel that "the warning bells of a trend are sounding." He added, "In my effort to empower people, I, Dan Goldin, pushed too hard, and in doing so, stretched the system too thin. . . . Mistakes were made that could have been avoided and must be corrected."

The $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter, which was to orbit Mars as the first interplanetary weather satellite, was lost on Sept. 23, 1999. An independent investigation found the main cause was that subcontractor Lockheed Martin had failed to convert English units to metric units when coding critical software. Then on Dec. 3, Lockheed Martin's $165 million Mars Polar Lander, which was to launch two softball-sized microprobes worth $28 million, also was lost. The mishap also was attributed to software errors.

An independent review of the Mars projects found that the lack of guidelines and policies to implement the "faster, better, cheaper" concept led to project managers "having different interpretations of what is prudent risk." In addition, the Mars program was underfunded by at least 30 percent, the report said, adding, "If adequate margins are available, risk can be effectively managed; if not, risk will grow to an unacceptable level."

Because of the Mars experiences, NASA officials plan to put less emphasis on "faster" and "cheaper" performance and more on better subcontractor oversight, says Thomas Luedtke, NASA associate administrator for procurement. Subcontractors will be expected to have stronger test programs and to ensure proj- ects are managed within prudent levels of risk, he says.

For the first time in seven years, Goldin has asked Congress for a budget increase. The agency's budget has dropped about 5 percent since fiscal 1993. Goldin wants $14 billion, about 3.2 percent above the fiscal 2000 level. Most of the increase would be earmarked for Space Shuttle upgrades and second-generation Reusable Launch Vehicles. Space science and safety-related projects would also see increases. Among NASA's fiscal 1999 contracts, the largest went to Thiokol Propulsion of Brigham City, Utah, for 73 Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motors. The contract will be worth as much as $1.73 billion over the next five years.

The next-largest awards were two contracts worth up to $400 million each over five years to provide launch services for NASA and NASA-sponsored small-class payloads. The selected companies were Coleman Research Corp. of Orlando, Fla., and Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va.

In an effort to further simplify its contracting process, NASA this year will open its new Virtual Procurement Office, which Luedtke describes as "an electronic method to give the operational procurement people at NASA command of the vast array of acquisition tools available on the Internet in an easy-to-use format." The approach will help procurement officers "leverage the resources of the Internet to better meet their customers' needs," he says.