Summary: The cost and schedule performance of the international space station have continued to deteriorate: the contract's cost overrun has quadrupled since April 1996 to $355 million, and the estimated cost to get it on schedule has doubled to $135 million. Since GAO's June 1997 testimony (GAO/T-NSIAD-97-177), further cost and schedule problems have surfaced with the space station and NASA acknowledges that the potential for cost growth in the program has increased. More complete estimates of the cost and schedule impacts of ongoing and planned changes to the program should be available later this year. GAO concludes that the program has reached the point at which Congress may wish to review the entire program. Such a review should focus on obtaining congressional and administration agreement on the future scope and cost level for a space station program that merits continued U.S. government support. GAO summarized this report in testimony before Congress; see: Space Station: Deteriorating Cost and Schedule Performance Under the Prime Contract, by Allen Li, Associate Director for Defense Acquisitions Issues, before the Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. GAO/T-NSIAD-97-262, Sept. 18 (four pages).
