WASHINGTON -- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will waste $215 million on its canceled Constellation program by March unless Congress takes "immediate action" to reverse a law protecting the dead-end moon project, according to a recent watchdog report.
The investigation by NASA Inspector General Paul Martin confirmed that NASA is being forced to keep funding Constellation -- even though the program was canceled in October after spending $12 billion during five years.
"Constraining NASA's ability to stop spending money on aspects of a rocket program that the administration and Congress both have agreed to cancel ... strikes us a problem ripe for correction," investigators wrote in a seven-page letter to Congress.
The reason for the waste can be traced to a 70-word sentence inserted into the 2010 budget by lawmakers looking to protect Constellation jobs. The language bars NASA from shutting down work being done by contractors on Constellation's rockets, crew capsule and other components and was intended to ensure the agency didn't pull the plug without congressional approval.
The restriction should have disappeared last Oct. 1, when the new 2011 fiscal year took effect.
But because Congress failed to pass a budget for 2011 and instead extended the 2010 budget until March, NASA still must adhere to the Constellation language. If Congress doesn't repeal the language, the letter added, NASA will waste $577 million by Sept. 30, the letter said.
Meanwhile, the agency said this week that it couldn't fulfill a congressional mandate to build a new, post-Constellation rocket by the end of 2016 because it didn't have enough money.
Though NASA expects to cannibalize pieces of Constellation for its next spacecraft program, Martin and his team identified about $215 million in spending since Oct. 1 that likely will have no future application.
This includes $83 million wasted on portions of Constellation's Ares rocket and $75 million on "ground operations," including $27 million to revamp a launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., that now may never see action. More was spent on everything from software to "program integration."
After Martin's letter was released, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., immediately vowed to file legislation that would overturn the 2010 language.
The restrictive language was put into the 2010 bill by U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican looking to protect Constellation jobs in his home state.
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