Cost Overruns, Cancelling of Small Missions Have Led to Lost ScienceOpportunities at NASA (Forwarded)

Office of News and Public Information
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 7, 2007

Cost Overruns, Cancelling of Small Missions Have Led to Lost Science
Opportunities at NASA

WASHINGTON -- NASA's astrophysics program has achieved the agency's
highest priority goals by focusing on large missions such as the Hubble
and James Webb space telescopes but in doing so, it has squeezed out
smaller missions that could be laying the foundation for future scientific
discovery, says a new report from the National Research Council.

"The progress in astrophysical science over the past decade has been
remarkable," said Martha Haynes, vice chair of the committee that wrote
the report and Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy, Cornell University,
Ithaca, N.Y. "However, the revolutionary discoveries were based on
missions NASA developed the decade before. We are concerned about 2010 and
beyond because there are no low-cost, quick-response science programs
being prepared today."

The committee was tasked with assessing how well programs in NASA's
astrophysics division -- which studies objects such as stars and galaxies
and their interactions -- address the strategies, goals, and priorities
outlined in previous National Research Council reports, primarily
Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium (2001) and Connecting
Quarks With the Cosmos (2003).

The one-year study determined that although NASA's astrophysics budget is
close to a historic high, priority missions have experienced enormous cost
overruns -- roughly $2 billion from 2000 to 2010 -- which has left fewer
resources for small missions. Also, in recent years, instability in the
astrophysics division due to management and mission changes has diminished
progress and momentum for realizing scientific opportunities outlined in
the Research Council's decadal survey. In addition, the cuts that have
been made to smaller missions have disrupted the training of young
scientists who would be the natural leaders of the medium and large-size
missions in the future.

The report recommends that NASA find a way to do small-scale low-cost
missions that can be quickly conceived, built, and launched. For starters,
the agency should restore funding for the Science Mission Directorate's
Explorer Program to its level from five years ago. NASA has launched over
80 successful Explorer spacecraft for a wide range of scientific
investigations over the past half century.

The committee also recommends that NASA limit mission costs by exploring
less expensive launch services and re-examining whether mission safety
requirements match the missions size. Relaxing de-orbiting requirements
for smaller spacecraft involved in low-cost missions, and strengthening
international collaborations on missions of all sizes could also control
costs, the report says.

The study was sponsored by NASA. The National Academy of Sciences,
National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National
Research Council make up the National Academies. They are private,
nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy
advice under a congressional charter. The Research Council is the
principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the
National Academy of Engineering. A committee roster follows.

Copies of Performance Assessment of NASA's Astrophysics Program are
available from the National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313 or
1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu . Reporters may
obtain a pre-publication copy from the Office of News and Public
Information (contacts listed above).

# # #

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
Board on Physics and Astronomy
and
Space Studies Board

Committee on NASA Astrophysics Performance Assessment

Kenneth H. Keller [1] (chair)
Director and Professor
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Bologna, Italy

Martha P. Haynes [2] (vice chair)
Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy
Cornell University
Ithaca, N.Y.

Steven J. Battel
President
Battel Engineering
Scottsdale, Ariz.

Charles L. Bennett [2]
Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Md.

Catherine Cesarsky [2]
Director General
European Southern Observatory
Garching, Germany

Megan Donahue
Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Michigan State University
East Lansing

Rolf-Peter Kudritzki
Director
Institute for Astronomy
University of Hawaii
Manoa

Stephen S. Murray
Deputy Director
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Cambridge, Mass.

Robert Palmer
Independent Consultant
Gainesville, Fla.

Joseph H. Taylor Jr. [2]
James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics
Princeton University
Princeton, N.J.

Michael S. Turner [2]
Bruce V. and Diane M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor
Department of Physics
University of Chicago
Chicago

Rainer Weiss [2]
Professor Emeritus of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge

Charles E. Woodward
Professor of Astronomy
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis

RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF

Brian D. Dewhurst
Study Director

[1] Member, National Academy of Engineering
[2] Member, National Academy of Sciences

[NOTE: Full report is available for online viewing at
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11828.html ]