NASA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a shocking report on the space agency’s second launcher (ML-2) for its Moon rocket, which could cost $2.2 billion more than originally thought.
The report, released this week, revealed the results of an audit of the ongoing development of a mobile launcher, which will be used to assemble, transport, and launch NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The OIG found significant cost overruns and schedule delays, with the mobile launcher potentially costing six times its original value.
In 2019, NASA awarded Bechtel a $383 million contract to design and build a second mobile launcher that will be used to transport the SLS rocket to its launch pad for the upcoming Artemis 4 mission, scheduled for launch in September 2028. At the time, Bechtel had to delivered the launcher in March 2023. By 2022, the contract value had increased to over 1 billion and its delivery date was pushed back to May 2026.
Despite initial cost projections, the OIG report estimates that the mobile launcher could end up costing $2.7 billion and won’t be ready to support SLS launches until September 2029. The OIG’s projections are based on cost increases that have occurred over the past three years, and the amount of construction left before being the perfect mobile launcher.
“Cost and schedule estimates from NASA and Bechtel have changed several times and increased significantly over time, making it difficult for NASA to identify its financial needs, respond to Congress and other stakeholders, and accurately measure project and contractor performance,” the report reads. . “The Agency’s history of increasing the ML-2 cost estimate over time also contributes to our assessment that costs will be higher than what the Agency is currently projecting. [Agency Baseline Commitment].”
NASA officials disagree with the OIG’s analysis, and believe that ML-2 cost growth will slow over time, according to the report. “Although progress has been made early in construction of ML-2, it is too early to determine the impact on continued contract cost growth and whether Bechtel can achieve and maintain improved performance throughout the construction phase,” the OIG wrote.
NASA’s plans to return to the Moon have been marred by cost overruns and delays. The space agency has already faced criticism over the rising cost of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which transports Mobile Launcher 1 (ML-1) from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A report released in May 2023 found that NASA’s overall investment in its Artemis Moon program is expected to reach $93 billion from 2012 to 2025, where SLS costs alone represent $23.8 billion spent in 2022. That’s $6 billion more than the Moon Rocket’s initial estimates.
The space agency has been exploring ways to reduce SLS costs by considering a service model for its implementation. The service contract will allow NASA to purchase future launch and payload capacity from a contractor who will own, operate and assemble the rocket.
SLS launched on November 16, 2022 with the Artemis 1 mission, sending the unmanned Orion capsule to the Moon. The 5.75-million-pound rocket is scheduled to carry its first crewed mission in September 2025, launching the Artemis 2 mission on a 10-day trip to the Moon and back. Until now, NASS’s SLS rocket has been a budgetary nightmare, and the space agency has just begun its lunar program that aims to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon.
More: After Spending Billions of Dollars on SLS, NASA Admits Its Moon Rocket Is ‘Unaffordable’
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