Author Topic: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract  (Read 64797 times)


Online FutureSpaceTourist

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« Last Edit: 10/10/2018 03:01 pm by FutureSpaceTourist »

Offline JDTractorGuy

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #2 on: 10/10/2018 03:09 pm »
This is incredibly disappointing.  Programs run by NASA like SLS and Orion are what got me so excited and interested in spaceflight during High School.  Of course at that time it was still projected to launch in 2017...

Reading the report makes it sound like its *mostly* Boeing's fault, since they failed to accurately estimate the cost of the project.  However, NASA seems to have over-evaluated their performance, giving them way more money than they should have received.  I'd be willing to bet this caused a snowball effect that had Boeing decrease performance further and so on...

I've always been a fan of SLS and any NASA rocket in particular.  Sadly, with all the other, cheaper alternatives that commercial companies are coming up with, and the constant delays and cost overruns like we see here, its becoming harder and harder for me to support this vehicle.

Edit:  Added thoughts based on the full article, not just the tweets.
« Last Edit: 10/10/2018 03:29 pm by JDTractorGuy »

Offline grythumn

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #3 on: 10/10/2018 03:10 pm »
Quote
Based on Boeing’s current expenditure rate, NASA will need to increase the contract value by approximately $800 million to complete the first Core Stage for delivery to the Kennedy Space Center in December 2019. If the EM-1 launch takes place in June 2020, more than $400 million—for a total of $1.2 billion—would need to be added to the contract.  This amount would only ensure delivery of Core Stage 1 and would not include the billions more required to complete work
on Core Stage 2 and the EUS.

Quote
[...]contracting officers approved contract modifications and issued task orders to several contracts without proper authority, exposing NASA to $321.7 million in unauthorized commitments, most of which will require follow-up contract ratification.

Quote
[...]the Agency’s plans are on hold for acquiring additional Core Stages.  Given that NASA officials estimate needing 52 months of lead time from issuing a contract to delivery, the earliest a third Core Stage can be produced is 2023, jeopardizing planned launch dates for future missions that require the rocket, including EM-2 and potentially a science mission to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, in 2022.

Quote
To its credit, the SLS Program has taken positive steps to address management and procurement issues related to the Boeing Stages contract, including making key leadership changes; requesting reviews of Boeing’s management, financial, and estimating systems; adding routine, in-depth performance reviews; and changing the procurement process to improve internal controls.  However, the impact of these actions on improving Boeing’s future contract performance is uncertain.

-R C 

Offline speedevil

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #4 on: 10/10/2018 03:15 pm »
Page 19 is interesting.
Boeing  has received $323M, 90% of the maximum possible in performance bonus fees.
« Last Edit: 10/10/2018 03:17 pm by speedevil »

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #5 on: 10/10/2018 03:17 pm »
Wow

https://twitter.com/sciguyspace/status/1050040145431449600

This could be first significant test for Bridenstine, but I guess that’ll depend on how much congress takes notice. But whatever happens politically EM-1 in 2020 not looking good.

Edit to add:

https://twitter.com/sciguyspace/status/1050042103017947136
« Last Edit: 10/10/2018 03:24 pm by FutureSpaceTourist »

Offline speedevil

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #6 on: 10/10/2018 03:20 pm »
Quote
From 2009 to 2016, a contracting officer exceeded his $2.5 million warrant by making multiple
unauthorized commitments in the amount of $318 million for contracts for Michoud operations,

Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage production, and advanced booster development. This
individual was also the primary contracting officer for the Boeing Stages contract. An issue with
exceeding warrants was initially discovered in December 2016 during an internal annual
self-assessment reviewed and signed by the Marshall procurement manager. However, this
situation was not acted upon or timely disclosed to NASA OIG as prescribed by the NASA FAR
Supplement.46 Based on an August 2017 referral from the Marshall Acquisition Integrity
Program, NASA OIG initiated an investigation and provided its findings to Marshall management
in October 2017.47 As a result, Marshall officials terminated the contracting officer’s warrant
and reassigned him pending final outcome of an inquiry into his actions and follow-up
negotiations to ratify the contractual actions committed over his warrant authority. As of
August 2018, Center management has not taken disciplinary action against the
contracting officer.

Offline grythumn

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #7 on: 10/10/2018 03:24 pm »
Quote
Although management concurred with Recommendation 1, we do not find their comments fully responsive.  Finally, NASA management did not concur with Recommendation 6.  Accordingly, recommendations 1 and 6 will remain unresolved pending further discussions with Agency officials.

(This bit is a photo; there may be some typos from me retyping it):
Quote
Recommendation 1: Develop a corrective action plan for completing the two Core Stages and EUS and brief that plan to Boeing and senior NASA officials to gain their approval.
Management's Response: NASA concurs with this recommendation. As stated in the "Positive Steps Taken to Address Procurement and Management Issues" section of the OIG's report, NASA apprised Boeing of the existing performance challenges in early 2018 and directed Boeing to develop a corrective action plan to address systemic issues to better control cost and schedule. This recommendation will be satisfied by the completion of a current study that demonstrates the manufacturing facility capability to meet applicable schedules

So the OIG told NASA to come with a plan to fix things, and their plan is to tell Boeing that they need to make a plan.

-R C

Offline grythumn

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #8 on: 10/10/2018 03:32 pm »
Quote
NASA attempted to obtain a lower cost for the SLS by removing reporting requirements such as not having EUS cost to be separately reported. The annual award fee, instead of every 6 months, was another attempt to reduce cost. The observed contractor performance showed that this approach, although it reduced contract value, did not allow the insight needed into contractor performance. If the contractor performance would have been better, this approach would have reduced cost to the Government.

-R C

Offline Proponent

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #9 on: 10/10/2018 03:43 pm »
This could be first significant test for Bridenstine, but I guess that’ll depend on how much congress takes notice.

Prediction:  Congress won't take notice.

With the exception of a bit of grumbling sotto voce from retiring congressmen, past delays and overruns have generated no complaints.  Logically, Congress would complain loudly if its principal purpose for funding SLS were space exploration, but that does not appear to be the case.

Once again, the much derided Booz Allen Hamilton report of 2011 is proven prophetic.

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #10 on: 10/10/2018 03:44 pm »

Offline Proponent

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #11 on: 10/10/2018 03:47 pm »
Boeing response reported ....

Boeing refers to SLS as an "unprecedented rocket program," but the whole point of a Shuttle-derived design was that it was to reduce costs by the use of hardware precedents.  On top of that, SLS's performance specs are not too different from those of a decades-old rocket, the Saturn 5.  Oh, and Boeing, which absorbed Rockwell International some years ago, was the prime contractor for the Shuttle and much of the Saturn 5.  The SLS program is very much "precedented."

EDIT:  'V' -> '5' in penultimate sentence, for consistency.
« Last Edit: 10/10/2018 05:08 pm by Proponent »

Offline Rocket Science

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #12 on: 10/10/2018 04:00 pm »
Boeing response reported

https://twitter.com/spacebrendan/status/1050048925342810112
Typical smug response... 5 years from now they'll give the same one...
« Last Edit: 10/10/2018 04:05 pm by Rocket Science »
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Online envy887

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #13 on: 10/10/2018 04:14 pm »
Boeing response reported

https://twitter.com/spacebrendan/status/1050048925342810112
Typical smug response... 5 years from now they'll give the same one...

Boeing is entirely correct that NASA's poor management of Boeing's poor performance is an internal NASA problem...

But they are totally handwaving away their own poor performance which is the cause of the whole issue.

Offline Proponent

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #14 on: 10/10/2018 04:29 pm »
This could be first significant test for Bridenstine, but I guess that’ll depend on how much congress takes notice.

Prediction:  Congress won't take notice....

Oh, and another reason Congress won't complain:  there's an election underway.  This is not the time that politicians want to be seen threatening people's cash cows.  By the time the election is over, the OIG's report will have been forgotten.  I'd say that, from Boeing's point of view, the timing of the report is ideal.

Offline Lars-J

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #15 on: 10/10/2018 04:42 pm »
Page 19 is interesting.
Boeing  has received $323M, 90% of the maximum possible in performance bonus fees.

That's just stunning. Can we stop pretending that they (Boeing and NASA SLS management) have any competence?

Offline AncientU

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #16 on: 10/10/2018 04:47 pm »
Quote
...we recommended the Agency (7) implement, by October 2018, an acquisition strategy for building additional Core Stages beyond Core Stage 2 that includes consideration for awarding the contract as a fixed-price, end-item deliverable contract with each Core Stage separated into unique task orders.

That would allow us to finally see the real cost of this rocket.  I suspect it would be a 'bit' higher than the advertised $500M.
« Last Edit: 10/10/2018 04:48 pm by AncientU »
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Offline AncientU

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #17 on: 10/10/2018 04:56 pm »
Quote
And that's fair. It is hard and technically complex. But what's left unsaid in the report, but will be said here, is that maybe NASA just isn't as good as others right now at building big rockets. It's been 40 years since they developed the space shuttle.

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1050065008078540816
"If we shared everything [we are working on] people would think we are insane!"
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Offline Proponent

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #18 on: 10/10/2018 05:12 pm »
Quote from: Introduction to the OIG's report
... due to continued production delays with the SLS Core Stage and upcoming critical testing and integration activities, current NASA schedules indicate launch dates of mid-2020 and mid-2022, respectively.

[Emphasis added.]

So the core stage has yet not passed through integration, which is when major stuff is really likely to hit the fan.  Things are probably going to get worse.

Offline edkyle99

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Re: OIG report on NASA management of Boeing SLS contract
« Reply #19 on: 10/10/2018 05:22 pm »
Boeing response reported ....

Boeing refers to SLS as an "unprecedented rocket program," but the whole point of a Shuttle-derived design was that it was to reduce costs by the use of hardware precedents.  On top of that, SLS's performance specs are not too different from those of a decades-old rocket, the Saturn 5.  Oh, and Boeing, which absorbed Rockwell International some years ago, was the prime contractor for the Shuttle and much of the Saturn 5.  The SLS program is very much "precedented."

EDIT:  'V' -> '5' in penultimate sentence, for consistency.
The SLS Core Stage, Boeing's part of this rocket, is unprecedented.  No liquid hydrogen stage has ever been this big, this long, this heavy, or produced this much thrust.  Boeing's (North American Aviation) Saturn V S-II stage was about 40% as much rocket as SLS Core.  An entire Delta 4 Heavy stack, including upper stage, only weighs 67% as much as SLS Core.  Etc.

 - Ed Kyle
« Last Edit: 10/10/2018 05:29 pm by edkyle99 »

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