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Continuing Independent Assessment of NPOESS 18 Jun 2009
The National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program has experienced some issues, notably cost increases and delays, while NOAA and NASA request improvements to the program to accomplish their mission goals while DOD does not. As such, the House Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight held a hearing on NPOESS on 17 June, 2009, entitled “Continuing Independent Assessment of NPOESS.”
During his opening statement, Chairman Brad Miller (D-NC) noted President Obama [has] said, 'If we see money being misspent, we're going to put a stop to it.' Unfortunately, we've seen money misspent on NPOESS, but stopping NPOESS is not an option [because] the American public needs the data produced by NPOESS in order to have accurate weather forecasts, and the world needs the climate data that would be collected by NPOESS to continue to understand how our climate is changing. Cancellation is not an option and failure is unacceptable."
One of the witnesses, David Powner, Director of Information Technology Management Issues at the Government Accountability Office stated that progress has been made, but "continued instrument problems are driving costs upward, forcing launch delays, and endangering satellite continuity." Mr. Powner estimates that NPOESS will cost nearly $14 billion more than originally estimated and that the tri-agency structure of the program between NASA, NOAA, and DOD makes it difficult to manage NPOESS.
Thomas Young, Chairman of the NPOESS Independent Review Team, revealed the team's findings, including, “NPOESS is being managed with cost as the most important parameter and not mission success […] the program is hardware poor with little protection against a launch failure or early spacecraft failure […] fiscal year funding shortfalls are causing decisions to be made that are adding risk and increasing cost […] [and] the highest probability of success is to maintain the current contractor team, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon and the [review team] recommends this action.”
In conclusion, the witnesses highlighted the ineffectiveness of the NPOESS Executive Committee and noted that reorganization of the program is necessary.
Please visit the Witness Statements for more information.