---
title: "Gov. Watchdog: NASA Hid True Cost of Boeing Moon Rocket"
description: "A new report fings that NASA has been downplaying the expected costs of its missions while rewarding contractors despite preventable delays"
date: "2019-06-19"
modified: "2019-06-19"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/watchdog-nasa-cost-boeing-rocket"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Boeing"
  - "Moon"
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "boeing"
  - "NASA"
  - "space"
---

# Gov. Watchdog: NASA Hid True Cost of Boeing Moon Rocket

![A new report fings that NASA has been downplaying the expected costs of its missions while rewarding contractors despite preventable delays](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/watchdog-nasa-cost-boeing-rocket.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Hidden Delays

NASA's upcoming uncrewed mission around the Moon, Artemis-1, may be delayed even more than the space agency [has reported](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-spacex-explosion-delayed-flight-program>). On top of that, NASA has been giving Boeing millions despite ongoing production issues with the mission's rocket.

That's according to a [new report](<https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/699823.pdf>) published by a congressional watchdog agency called the Government Accountability Office (GAO), [first reported](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06/new-report-finds-nasa-awarded-boeing-large-fees-despite-sls-launch-slips/>) by *Ars Technica*. Per the report, NASA downplayed the extent to which the project will exceed its budget — when NASA reduced the scope of the mission, it didn't cut back on its original budget as well. The space agency can claim to be less drastically over-budget if its original projections remain inflated.

## Unusual Bookkeeping

After the GAO calculated a new baseline based on the actual, reduced scope of this particular mission, it found that NASA would end up spending an additional $800 million over its expected final cost. And that's on top of the $1 billion cost growth that NASA [already acknowledged](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-budget-billions-moon>), according to the report.

But NASA associate administrator William Gerstenmaier pushed back on the numbers. *Ars* reviewed a letter he sent to the GAO in which he argued that the "GAO report repeatedly projects the worst-case schedule outcome."

## Positive Reinforcement

This new report found a number of avoidable issues and that may have contributed to NASA's delays and rising costs.

In particular, the GAO found that NASA awarded Boeing $271 million between July 2014 and September 2018, consistently rating the contractor's work on the rocket things like "very good" and "excellent," *Ars* notes.

Meanwhile, Boeing hired fewer than half of the technicians necessary to complete the rocket on time, according to the report, suggesting that NASA had been rewarding its performance on a contract that never could have been delivered on schedule.

**READ MORE:** [New report finds NASA awarded Boeing large fees despite SLS launch slips](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06/new-report-finds-nasa-awarded-boeing-large-fees-despite-sls-launch-slips/>) \[*Ars Technica*\]

**More on NASA:** *[Congress: NASA is hideously over budget, plagued by delays](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-missions-over-budget-delayed>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)