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GAO-11-519R 1 (2011-04-11)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaanxl0001 and id is 1 raw text is: AO A Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 April 11, 2011 The Honorable John D. Rockefeller IV Chairman The Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchinson Ranking Member Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation United States Senate The Honorable Ralph Hall Chairman The Honorable Eddie Bernice Johnson Ranking Member Committee on Science, Space and Technology House of Representatives Subject: International Space Station (ISS) - Ongoing Assessments for Life Extension Appear to be Supported This letter formally transmits the attached briefing (see encl. I) in response to the mandate contained in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Authorization Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-267, Section 503(c)(2), for GAO to provide an evaluation of the accuracy and level of confidence in the findings contained in NASA's assessment of the essential modules, operational systems and components, structural elements, and permanent scientific equipment required to ensure complete, effective, and safe functioning and full scientific utilization of the International Space Station through 2020. We provided your staff a draft copy of this briefing in meetings with them on April 6 and 7, 2011. We also provided a draft to NASA for comment. NASA agreed with our findings and provided technical comments that we incorporated as appropriate. Our objectives were to determine (1) how NASA will ensure that the ISS is structurally sound and that essential spares and replacement components are available to support safe functioning and full scientific utilization through 2020, and (2) the extent to which NASA's assessment of the essential spares necessary to assure continued operations of the ISS through 2020 is supported by sufficient, accurate, and relevant underlying data and appropriate and reasonable methodologies. NASA is using analytical techniques, physical tests, and inspections to assess primary structures and functional systems and determine sparing needed to support safe functioning and full scientific utilization of the ISS through 2020. These assessments are ongoing, so all results are not yet available. Our work indicates that NASA's assessments appear to be supported by sufficient, accurate and relevant underlying data. We found, however, that NASA's estimates of ISS sparing needs are sensitive to assumptions about hardware reliability. GAO-1 1-519R International Space Station