Failure to Launch! Mississippi Senators Force NASA to Waste Taxpayer Dollars on Rocket Engine Testing Facility

Congress is in the middle of budget debates including the release of a 1,500 page Omnibus spending bill and a debt limit that is set to be reached in February.  But, it seems like some members of Congress are clueless to the dire financial straits of the country. For example, last week, Bloomberg News reported that NASA will forge ahead with plans to complete a project early this year that will build a structure to test rocket engines at Stennis Space Center in the state of Mississippi. However, there are two issues: first, the finished program will cost taxpayers $352 million; second, NASA doesn’t need it! According to Noah Rayman of Time magazine:

Congress ordered NASA to complete a $350 million rocket-testing structure that may never be used, Bloomberg News reports.

The 300-foot tower at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi was designed to test how the Ares I and Ares V engines would work at high altitudes, for rockets under development that would send people into space and up to the moon. But the project was scrapped after the Constellation program spearheaded by former President George W. Bush was cancelled in 2010.

And yet, under orders from Congress, NASA is still building the A-3 tower at a cost of $57 million to complete and $840,000 annually to maintain. The stand could conceivably be used to test engines for future rockets, most likely developed by private sector firms, but NASA is not developing any rockets that would need engines tested under the high-altitude conditions.

There is no reason why $352 million should be used to fund the construction of a facility in Mississippi that the agency responsible for the project has said won’t even be able to be used. Unfortunately, in Washington, D.C. politics trumps common sense. Due to the efforts of both of the state’s Senators, Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Thad Cochran (R-MS), the testing facility was put on a continued track for completion despite the fact that there are no rocket engines that currently exist which warrant such a facility be built for testing purposes.

“In 2010, I authored an amendment to require the completion of that particular project, ensuring the Stennis facility is prepared for ever-changing technologies and demands.”—Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) responding to the Bloomberg News piece

“It is important that a large emphasis be placed on safety and testing, and we cannot launch any type of vehicle until we test it extensively using NASA’s best tools for testing.”—Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS) in 2011

The real underlying point is that this is just another concrete example of how elected officials in Washington are doing little to solve the crisis of spending that is plaguing the country’s balance sheets. What is worse is that both Sens. Wicker and Cochran defended their actions and are unyielding in their support for the construction of the testing stand even though it as useless now as it will be when ultimately finished. There are actually stands already built in California and Alabama that are capable of handling the rocket engine tests, should they ever be needed:

Federal watchdogs today criticized NASA for spending $352 million to refurbish a Mississippi test stand for critical upcoming tests on the Space Launch System when cheaper test stands were available faster in Huntsville and California.

The NASA Office of Inspector General released a report that detailed the matter and concluded that NASA had acted contrary to their own rules and agreements:

Similar to the OIG’s conclusions 5 years ago, the OIG found that NASA failed to follow its internal policies or its agreement with the DOD when it decided to spend approximately $352 million to refurbish and test the SLS core stage on the B-2 test stand at Stennis. Moreover, the OIG found that NASA did not adequately support its decision given that refurbishing the B-2 stand will be more costly and take longer than two other possible options: an Air Force test stand at Edwards Air Force Base in California and a test stand at the Marshall Space Flight Center. In addition, although SLS Program managers spent considerable time and money studying the B-2 option, they gave the joint NASA-DOD testing board minimal time to assess the cost, schedule, and risks of the other test stand options.

What has happened with this project is a scathing indictment of politicians, federal agencies, and the overall bureaucracy that operates behind the scenes in Washington. When all is said and done taxpayers will have shelled out more than $350 million dollars for something that can’t be used, and could have been made cheaper elsewhere.

Congress needs to give agencies the tools to be better stewards of taxpayer dollars.  Building unneeded projects such as the rocket facility is yet another sign of politics as usual and failed leadership.