Commercial Use of Space

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed: (1) the extent of private-sector involvement in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) grant program supporting the Centers for the Commercial Development of Space (CCDS); (2) the centers' progress toward and prospects for self-sufficiency; and (3) NASA management of the program.

GAO found that: (1) the number of private industry affiliates increased from 63 reported by 6 centers in 1986 to approximately 199 reported by 16 centers in 1990, and industry financial support increased from $1 million in 1986 to over $4 million in 1990; (2) CCDS will not achieve self-sufficiency in the near future, despite increased industry involvement; (3) to survive without government grants, centers needed to complete projects with the potential for ultimately generating patentable processes and products with commercial applications; (4) NASA implementation of a flexible goal plan delimiting the grant support period could encourage grantees to hasten efforts toward self-sufficiency; (5) the Payload Selection Board review process needed to be reviewed to ensure desired review coverage and that members understand their roles and responsibilities; (6) timely, complete, and accurate fiscal information on centers' activities was not routinely available since NASA did not enforce reporting requirements on the use of federal funds; and (7) NASA lacked timely accounting information on its grantees, due to its lack of a uniform financial management system.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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