NASA Reconsiders DAWN Mission Cancellation

amstrad writes "Last month, NASA decided to cancel the DAWN mission to Ceres and Vesta citing 'technical difficulties' and 'budget overrun'. Monday, NASA released a statement reinstating the mission." From the article: "The decision to cancel Dawn was made March 2, 2006, after about $257 million already had been spent. An additional expenditure of about $14 million would have been required to terminate the project. The reinstatement resulted from a review process that is part of new management procedures established by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. The process is intended to help ensure open debate and thorough evaluation of major decisions regarding space exploration and agency operations."

Comments

Re:$14,000,000!

[Anonymous Coward]

This kind of thing is actually fairly common in large operations with (many) subcontractors. The fourteen million probably goes to early contract termination fees, materials already taken delivery of but not paid for, etc. The cynical would blame this "tradition" on NASA inheriting the military/government way of doing things, but one should realize that almost all large systems/transactions are handled in this way.

Re:Sometimes you need an egomaniac

[greginnj]

What they need, instead of indecision, is an egomaniac whose single-mindedness of purpose can drive the whole space program forward.

Hell yes!

Someone like Bill Gates ...

Oh hell no! I thought you were going to say, someone like Theo DeRaadt, who has a long history of hitting his release schedules -- what is it, every 6 months for 10 years now? -- and building a rock-solid product. And, ya gotta concede, he's got the 'egomaniac' and 'single-mindedness of purpose' bit DOWN.

Bill and Ball release stuff late, charge too much, and even when it's released, their stuff crashes all the time. NOT what NASA needs.