Despite energetic lobbying by the defense industry (and some lawmakers) the $825 billion stimulus bill now emerging from committee markups seems free of handouts for Air Force jets and other military hardware. But DOD will benefit from hundreds of millions going to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for a fancy satellite program called the National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).

A tri-agency project that will circle the globe picking up weather and climate data, NPOESS was intended to save money by replacing two similar systems operated separately by the Air Force and NOAA. Unfortunately, construction and testing bungles slowed things down so that 14 years later, the cost of the Raytheon/Northrop Grumman program has doubled from $6.5 to $12.5 billion for four instead of six satellites. And the first bird has yet to make its maiden voyage.

When it does, it might lack several data-gathering sensors eliminated in a 2006 program restructuring. Part of the $400 million in stimulus money slated for NASA and $600 million for NOAA would put back a sensor that tracks radiation from the sun and measures its impact on climate change. Not a bad thing, but the Government Accountability office worried in a recent report about a lack of consensus between the agencies on whether NPOESS—rather than one of the many other satellites the government fields—is the most cost-effective vehicle. This lack of consensus is not helped by the fact that DOD delayed signing off on the program’s cost baseline, making it hard to measure whether the satellite’s costs are still spinning into the stratosphere. Small wonder: Yesterday’s release of GAO’s 2009 high-risk list reminds us that DOD, NASA and interagency contracting are repeat offenders.

For more information, contact Laura Peterson.