The NASA platform for launching a rocket with astronauts to the Moon has risen in price five times and will be assembled late

The latest audit of NASA’s activities has revealed a new failure. The inspector’s report indicates that the mobile launcher (ML-2) ordered by NASA to launch the SLS rocket with astronauts on board will be manufactured with a delay of at least one year and at an almost fivefold increased cost. These are the terms of a floating price contract, and no one can do anything about it.

Readiness of the ML-2 platform for April 2024. Image source: NASA

The contractor for the manufacture of the ML-2 platform, like the ML-1, is the American construction company Bechtel National. In the practice of space launches in the United States, the rocket is assembled vertically in a hangar, followed by transportation to the launch pad. The rocket is assembled immediately on the launcher, together with which it then moves to the launch site and launches from it. Constant typhoons at launch sites leave no other choice – a half-assembled rocket cannot be left on the launch pad.

The larger the rocket, the more powerful the mobile platform must be. Therefore, the ML-1 platform, which has already been created and sent the Orion spacecraft on the SLS rocket to fly around the Moon, is not suitable for launching a rocket with an enlarged upper stage, which will have to deliver a ship with a crew and part of the orbital lunar station into satellite orbit.

The contract initially signed by NASA with Bechtel for the assembly of the ML-2 platform was $384 million, and the delivery date was March 2024. As the agency’s auditors now explain, as of April 2024, metal had barely begun to be cut for the production of ML-2.

NASA expects the cost of the ML-2 platform to rise to $1.8 billion, and the company will produce it by September 2027. However, NASA inspectors are less optimistic. According to the audit, the cost will be even higher, and the delivery time will be delayed even longer. The tallest building in the world – the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai with a height of 828 m – cost the customer half the estimated cost of the ML-2 platform. According to auditors, Bechtel had little understanding of the scale and scope of work that NASA required of it.

The reason for the overspending at NASA is the conclusion of contracts with a floating price. At the same time, the agency refuses to switch to fixed-price contracts, at least for already concluded contracts. NASA believes that this will make contracts even more expensive, as companies will seek to include as much insurance money as possible in them. At one time, when speaking before Congress, NASA head Bill Nelson called the practice of concluding contracts without a fixed price “a plague.” However, the agency itself is not yet in a hurry or looking for ways to abandon this “plague”, continuing to conclude contracts with an ever-growing budget.

A delay in the production of the ML-2 mobile launch platform will obviously lead to a delay in the Artemis program. Officially, the Artemis-4 mission with astronauts to land on the Moon is planned for 2028. Given the delay in the development of ML-2, it is unlikely that this mission will be launched before mid-2029.