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GAO-25-108199 1 (August 28, 2025)

handle is hein.gao/whdr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: G r ~o U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Comptroller General Washington, DC 20548 of the United States August 28, 2025 The Honorable Sean Duffy Acting Administrator National Aeronautics and Space Administration 300 E Street Northwest Washington, DC 20546 Priority Open Recommendations: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Dear Acting Administrator Duffy: The purpose of this letter is to call your personal attention to two areas based on GAO's past work and three open priority recommendations, which are enclosed.1 Additionally, there are 45 other GAO open recommendations that we will continue to work with your staff to address. We are highlighting the following areas that warrant your timely and focused attention. Specifically: Monitoring Program Costs and Execution. NASA needs to continue making progress on reducing acquisition risk and improving project cost and schedule performance for its most expensive and complex projects. We have been monitoring NASA Acquisition Management as a high-risk area since 1990. NASA has implemented efforts to improve the oversight and transparency of its major projects' costs and schedules, including the long-term costs of human space exploration programs. However, NASA continues to face challenges controlling cost growth and schedule delays for its category 1 projects, which are those that exceed $2 billion in life-cycle costs. Category 1 projects have an outsized effect on NASA's portfolio if they experience cost and schedule growth. These include projects needed to conduct the Artemis missions that will return astronauts to the moon, build a sustainable lunar presence, and ultimately bring humans to Mars. NASA also needs to improve transparency into Artemis mission and program costs. Specifically, NASA has not taken steps to create a life-cycle cost estimate for the Artemis Ill mission, as we recommended in December 2019.2 This is important as NASA plans for this mission to return U.S. astronauts to the surface of the moon in 2027. A life-cycle cost estimate for this mission could provide transparency into the cost of the programs necessary to execute the mission. In September 2023, we reiterated the importance of our recommendation that NASA develop a life-cycle cost estimate for the Space Launch System (SLS) Block I rocket for missions beyond Artemis I. A life-cycle cost estimate for SLS Block I would provide Congress with insight into the 1GAO considers a recommendation to be a priority if when implemented, it may significantly improve government operations, for example, by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making progress toward addressing a high-risk or duplication issue. 2GAO, NASA Lunar Programs: Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Analyses and Plans for Moon Landing, GAO-20-68 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 19, 2019). GAO-25-108199 NASA Priority Recommendations Page 1