NASA/Isaac Watson
NASA’s problems with the mobile launch tower that will support a larger version of its Space Launch System rocket are getting worse, not better.
According to a new report from NASA’s inspector general, the estimated cost of the tower, which is slightly taller than the length of an American football field with its end zones, has now risen to $2.7 billion. That’s nearly twice as much as the funding needed to build the world’s tallest structure, the Burj Khalifa, which is seven times taller.
This is a remarkable cost explosion, given that just five years ago NASA awarded a contract to engineering firm Bechtel to build and deliver a second mobile launch vehicle (ML-2) for $383 million, with a deadline of March 2023. That deadline came and went as Bechtel was just starting to cut metal.
NASA now estimates the cost of the tower project at $1.8 billion, with a completion date of September 2027. However, the new report, released Monday, concludes that NASA’s estimate is likely too conservative. “Our analysis indicates that costs could be even higher, in part because of the significant amount of construction that remains to be completed,” said the report, signed by Deputy Inspector General George A. Scott.
Bigger rocket, bigger tower
NASA commissioned the construction of the launch tower, at the express direction of the US Congress, to accommodate a larger version of the Space Launch System, known as Block 1B. This combines the existing core stage of the rocket with a larger and more powerful second stage, known as the Exploration Upper Stage, which is being developed by Boeing.
The space agency plans to use this larger version of the SLS rocket starting with the Artemis IV mission, which is to send a crewed Orion spacecraft and a piece of the Lunar Gateway into orbit around the moon. It will be the second time astronauts have landed on the lunar surface under the Artemis program. The nominal launch date for the Artemis IV mission is set for 2028, but the new report confirms the widely held assumption in the space community that such a date is unachievable.
For the mission to launch in 2028, NASA has said it needs to complete the ML-2 tower by November 2026. NASA and the new report agree that there is a zero percent chance of that happening. Therefore, if the Artemis IV mission uses the upgraded version of the SLS rocket, it almost certainly won’t launch until mid-2029 at the earliest.
Why have costs and delays increased so much? One reason, the report says, is that Bechtel continually underestimated the scale and complexity of the project.
“Bechtel significantly underestimated the number of labor hours required to complete the ML-2 project and, as a result, incurred more labor hours than anticipated. From May 2022 to January 2024, estimated overtime hours doubled to nearly 850,000 hours, reflecting the company’s attempts to meet NASA’s schedule goals.
It’s hard to hold Bechtel accountable
One of the key takeaways from the new report is that NASA appears to be pretty limited in what it can do to incentivize Bechtel to build the mobile launch tower faster or at a more reasonable price. The cost-plus contract mechanism gives the space agency limited power over the contractor, beyond retaining the award fee. The report notes that NASA declined to exercise an option to convert the contract to a fixed-price mechanism.
“Although the option is officially retained in the contract, NASA officials informed us that they did not intend to request a fixed-price offer from Bechtel,” the report said. “The (Exploration Ground Systems) program and ML-2 project management told us that they assumed Bechtel would likely provide a price offer well beyond NASA’s budgetary capacity to account for the additional risk involved in a fixed-price contract.”
In other words, since NASA did not initially require a fixed-price contract, it now appears that any bid from Bechtel would completely blow the agency’s annual budget.
The rising costs of the mobile launch tower have already been a source of frustration for NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. In 2022, as cost estimates for the ML-2 structure approached $1 billion, Nelson attacked the cost-escalation mechanism in testimony before Congress.
“I think this is the plan that can give us all the benefits of competition,” Nelson said of fixed-price contracts. “You do it through that competitive spirit. You do it at a lower cost, which allows us to move away from what has plagued us in the past, which is cost-plus contracts, and move to an existing contract price.”
The plague continues to spread.
