Aerospace CEO on launch

http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/...s/1278887.html

Friday, February 18, 2005
Launch woes undermined space program
The Aerospace Corp.
By Muhammed El-Hasan
Daily Breeze

The 1990s represented not only a period of steep cuts
in defense spending after the Cold War's end, but an
increased emphasis on the bottom line that led to
failed rocket launches and threatened the nation's
advances in space.

That was the message and warning delivered by William
Ballhaus, president and CEO of El Segundo-based The
Aerospace Corp., in a speech Wednesday night.

Ballhaus, an industry veteran who joined Aerospace in
2000, made his remarks during an event at the Crowne
Plaza LAX organized by the Los Angeles chapter of the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

"Today, we're at a crossroads in national security
space," Ballhaus said to a roomful of mostly engineers
from Southern California aerospace firms. "We're
recovering from lapses in mission success and program
execution from the 1990s while simultaneously building
new, more complex systems in every space mission."

[snip]

In the 1990s, failed rocket launches led to an
estimated $11 billion in lost assets for military, civil
and commercial programs, Ballhaus said.

The launch failures of the 1990s peaked in 1998 and 1999,
years that saw six ruined missions including three Titan
IV and two Delta III rockets.

Even more important than the financial losses were the
resulting gaps in military capabilities and lost
opportunities for exploration and business advancement,
Ballhaus said.

"Believing they could do more for less, the government
and industry made some assumptions on how space programs
could be executed at less cost," Ballhaus said.

One of the "flawed assumptions" was that government could
develop complex space systems while exerting little
oversight over contractors, "putting the contractor in
charge," Ballhaus said.

After the 1998 and 1999 rocket failures, Ballhaus
participated in a government review of the launch
failures. One of the main recommendations from that review
was to re-emphasize mission success rather than cost.

It was "amazing" how similar that review's recommendations
were to previous recommendations made for the rocket
industry, Ballhaus said.

"It's useful to everyone once in a while to pull out these
reports and recommendations and see if we're in compliance
with what was recommended," Ballhaus said.

He suggested revisiting the recommendations a year from now
to make sure they're being followed.

Allen Thomson wrote:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/...s/1278887.html

The 1990s represented not only a period of steep cuts
in defense spending after the Cold War's end, but an
increased emphasis on the bottom line that led to
failed rocket launches and threatened the nation's
advances in space.

That was the message and warning delivered by William
Ballhaus, president and CEO of El Segundo-based The
Aerospace Corp., in a speech Wednesday night. ...


There were failures in the '90s, sure, but there
were failures in the '80s and '70s too. There
have always been failures. And there still are
failures. And the rate hasn't change much since
the mid 1960s.

Space Launch Totals by Decade
(Worldwide)
L = Launches F = Failures
L(F) Success
Rate
----------------------------
1950s 48(27) 0.44
1960s 991(68) 0.93
1970s 1230(84) 0.93
1980s 1194(55) 0.95
1990s 892(64) 0.93
2000-04 326(14) 0.96
----------------------------
TOTAL 4681(412) 0.91

- Ed Kyle