SLS test stand topped out

This aerial view shows NASA Test Stand 4693 under construction in the West Test Area of Marshall Space Flight Center. (Marty Sellers / SellersPhoto.com)

(Lee Roop lroop@al.com)

Federal auditors say NASA had to spend $35.5 million it hadn't planned to in order to finish two large Space Launch System test stands at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

Further, the auditors said NASA didn't take a real look at alternative locations for the test stands and might have built them cheaper elsewhere.

The inspector general's audit released today focused on test stands 4693 and 4697 at Marshall. NASA built them to test the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks that are part of the core of the agency's new Space Launch System.

NASA contracted with the Army Corps of Engineers in 2013 to build the two tanks. That deal quickly needed a cash injection.

"In an attempt to meet a 2017 launch date for the SLS, NASA expedited construction ... and paid the contractor a premium of approximately $7.6 million to complete construction on a compressed timetable," the auditors said.

NASA technicians lift a test part for the Space Launch System onto a Marshall Space Flight Center test stand in Huntsville, Ala., on Thursday Nov. 17, 2016. The stand to the right, the liquid oxygen tank test stand, is now the subject of NASA auditor scrutiny. (Bob Gathany/bgathany@AL.com)

But there was another problem. The stands were designed based on "preliminary testing specifications" because the real requirements "were not fully understood when the construction contract was awarded," the auditors said.

As NASA got deeper into SLS design, its modifications added $20.3 million to the contract price. NASA didn't have that in reserve and had to ask Congress for a total of $35.5 million more than the planned budget.

NASA still can't be sure it built the stands in the right place, the auditors said, because the agency "did not adequately consider alternative locations before choosing Marshall."

That question arose at Marshall this week when the space agency invited media to see a major SLS test part arrive after a 1,240-mile barge ride from the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans. In their report, auditors said each one of those trips costs approximately $500,000.

"You've got to look at your resources, the people, all of your moving equipment," Tim Flores, SLS core stage integration manager, told reporters. "It was much cheaper to just barge the equipment here and have these stands built here where we are actually a center of excellence for structural engineering."

Flores said NASA relied on numerous studies made during the Constellation program to reach that conclusion. And auditors agree that Marshall is the testing site "for many of NASA's iconic space programs" and has "a comprehensive set of structural and environmental testing facilities ... a full range of engineering support capabilities ... and test planning support...."

The two stands are finished now, and they are awaiting test oxygen and hydrogen tanks to arrive beginning later this year.

The inspector general's office made several recommendations that boiled down to: Do better project reviews and planning. NASA basically agreed with the two of the auditors' three findings and proposed new ways of preventing the problems from happening again.

On the third recommendation to improve its method of deciding whether new facilities are needed or old ones can be modified, NASA said the question is part of its program management requirements. The auditors disagreed, saying the requirements NASA cites existed but didn't prevent the problems with these test stands and don't ensure the issues won't rise again. The agency and auditors are still discussing the finding.