NASA: Constellation Program Cost and Schedule Will Remain Uncertain Until a Sound Business Case Is Established

Subsequent to the issuance of our report, the Augustine Commission, a blue ribbon panel of experts chaired by Norm Augustine and stood up by the President to advise him on NASA's manned space program issued a report that mirrored GAO's findings. The Augustine Committee found that Constellation key milestones were slipping, that the program would not return humans back to the moon in any reasonable time or within any affordable cost, and that far more funding was needed to successfully implement the Constellation program. The President and the NASA Administrator agreed with the findings of the Augustine Commission. NASA's fiscal year 2011 budget request canceled the Constellation program, effectively delaying the program's entry into the implementation phase of development, and laid out NASA's plans for moving forward. These plans, however, have not been well received by the Congress. Congress in the FY2010 Omnibus appropriation Act prohibited NASA from using FY 2010 funding appropriated to terminate the Constellation program. Numerous compromise proposals have been advocated by interested parties within and outside NASA and the Congress. Deliberations on NASA's future plans for manned spaceflight are likely to continue into calendar year 2011 when NASA submits its fiscal year 2012 budget request.