Space Project Testing

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) testing activities, focusing on: (1) the adequacy of the NASA testing policies and practices; (2) NASA oversight of contractor testing; and (3) the adequacy of resources available for testing.

GAO found that: (1) although space systems testing varies from project to project, many of the recent NASA space projects have accomplished or are expected to accomplish their mission objectives; (2) 7 of the 10 NASA-developed payloads placed in orbit between January 1986 and December 1990 have met their initial mission objectives; (3) because NASA did not have uniform, agencywide policy guidance for testing space systems, its existing guidance was fragmented, not well defined, and varied between NASA field centers; (4) NASA policies did not require a comprehensive test plan for each project to show how performance requirements were validated, to define responsibilities for testing, or to identify any limitations in the testing program; (5) hardware designed for the same mission may be tested to different standards, since testing criteria differ from center to center; (6) although all centers have oversight controls to help ensure that contractors properly plan and conduct tests and report the results, some controls at some centers could be further strengthened; (7) NASA needs to retain more of its research and development work in-house to provide the needed hands-on opportunities for civil service personnel and to adequately oversee agency contractors; and (8) although resources were normally sufficient to conduct essential tests, no standard criterion existed for judging the adequacy of funds spent on testing.

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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