James Webb Space Telescope: Technical Challenges Have Caused Schedule Strain and May Increase Costs
Released: 2020-01-28T00:00:00

Letter

Background

When complete, JWST will be a large, deployable space telescope, optimized for infrared observations. It is the scientific successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope launched 29 years ago. JWST is being designed for a 5-year mission to find the first stars, study planets in other solar systems, search for the building blocks of life elsewhere in the universe, and trace the evolution of galaxies from their beginning to their current formation. JWST is intended to operate in an orbit approximately 1.5 million kilometers—or 1 million miles—from Earth. With a 6.5-meter (21.3 foot) diameter mirror, JWST is expected to operate at about 100 times the sensitivity of the Hubble Space Telescope. Its science instruments are designed to observe faint infrared sources and therefore are required to operate at extremely cold temperatures. To help keep these instruments cold, the JWST project will rely on a multi-layered, tennis court-sized sunshield to protect the mirrors and instruments from the sun’s heat.

The JWST project is divided into three major segments: observatory, ground, and launch. When complete, the observatory segment will include several elements (Optical Telescope Element, Integrated Science Instrument Module, and spacecraft) and major subsystems (sunshield and cryocooler). Additionally, JWST is dependent on software to deploy and control various components of the telescope, and to collect and transmit data back to Earth. The elements, major subsystems, and software are being developed through a mixture of NASA, contractor, and international partner efforts. See figure 1 for the elements and major subsystems of JWST and appendix I for more details, including a description of the elements, major subsystems, and instruments.

JWST depends on more deployment events—steps after launch that configure the observatory for its mission and place it in orbit—than a typical science mission. Due to the observatory’s large size, it is nearly impossible to perform deployment tests of the fully assembled observatory in a thermal vacuum chamber to simulate the space environment, so the verification of deployment elements is accomplished by a combination of lower level component tests in flight-simulated environments; ambient deployment tests for subsystem, element, and observatory levels; and detailed analysis and simulations at various levels of assembly. Figure 1 shows the multiple layers of integration and testing for major components of the JWST observatory.

For the majority of work remaining, the JWST project is relying on two contractors: Northrop Grumman and the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy’s Space Telescope Science Institute. Northrop Grumman plays the largest role, developing the sunshield, the Optical Telescope Element, the spacecraft, and the Mid-Infrared Instrument’s cryocooler, in addition to integrating and testing the observatory. Space Telescope Science Institute’s role includes soliciting and evaluating research proposals from the scientific community, and receiving and storing the scientific data collected, both of which are services that the Institute currently provides for the Hubble Space Telescope. Additionally, the Institute is developing the ground system that manages and controls the telescope’s observations and will operate the observatory on behalf of NASA. JWST will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket, provided by the European Space Agency.

History of Cost Growth and Schedule Delays

The JWST program has a history of significant schedule delays and project cost increases, which resulted in both the 2011 and 2018 replans. Prior to approving the project’s development, cost estimates for JWST ranged from $1 billion to $3.5 billion, with expected launch dates ranging from 2007 to 2011. Due to early technical and management challenges, contractor performance issues, and low levels of cost reserve, the JWST program experienced schedule overruns, launch delays, and cost growth. The program underwent a replan in September 2011 and then a rebaseline; further, Congress placed an $8 billion cap on the formulation and development costs for the project. However, in June 2018, after a series of launch delay announcements due to technical and workmanship issues identified during spacecraft element integration, NASA notified Congress that it had revised the JWST program’s cost and schedule estimates again. NASA estimated that it would now require $828 million in additional resources over the program’s lifecycle and 29 more months beyond the estimates agreed to in the 2011 rebaseline to complete the project. Since the project’s costs and schedule were baselined in 2009, costs have increased by 95 percent and its launch date has been delayed by over 6.5 years.

Prior to this more recent replan, NASA established an Independent Review Board (IRB) in April 2018, comprised of technical experts from outside the JWST program to evaluate all factors that may affect the successful completion of remaining mission steps. The board released its final report in May 2018 in which it made 32 recommendations that address a range of technical, organizational, and other factors. The IRB took into account varying technical and workmanship errors, human mistakes, adequacy of integration and test staff, and other considerations when it analyzed the project’s organizational and technical issues. The IRB recommended, among other actions, that the project conduct an audit to identify potential embedded design flaws; establish corrective actions to detect and correct human mistakes during integration and testing; establish a coherent, agreed-upon, and factual narrative on project status and communicate that status regularly across all relevant stakeholders; and, finally, augment integration and test staff to ensure adequate long-term staffing and improve employee morale. These recommendations also included reconsidering the proposed launch date.

In March 2019, we found that NASA had considered many of the program’s risks while developing its 2018 replan schedule and cost baseline but recommended that additional analysis be completed to provide NASA and Congress with better insight into project resourcing and affordability. A Joint Cost and Schedule Confidence Level is an integrated analysis of a project’s cost, schedule, risk, and uncertainty, the result of which indicates a project’s likelihood of meeting cost and schedule targets. The project did not complete such an analysis as part of its second replan. NASA policy says this tool may be used to inform planning. Though not required by NASA policy, we recommended that one be conducted given the long history of program challenges and the significant and complex integration events that still needed to be completed. NASA agreed with our recommendation and completed this analysis in October 2019. GAO plans to conduct a separate, more detailed engagement on this analysis and its findings in the future. See appendix II for more information on this and other GAO recommendations.

Schedule and Cost Reserves for NASA Projects

The JWST project, like other complex development efforts we have reviewed, faces numerous risks and potential unforeseen technical challenges, which often become apparent during integration and testing. To accommodate unanticipated challenges and manage risk, projects include extra time in their schedules, referred to as schedule reserve, and extra funds in their budgets, referred to as cost reserve. Schedule reserve is allocated to specific activities, elements, and major subsystems in the event of delays or to address unforeseen risks. Each JWST element and major subsystem has been allocated schedule reserve. When an element or major subsystem exhausts schedule reserve, it may affect schedule reserve on other elements or major subsystems whose progress is dependent on prior work being finished. Cost reserve is additional funding within the project manager’s budget that can be used to address and mitigate unanticipated issues for any element or major subsystem. Goddard—the NASA center with responsibility for managing JWST— issued procedures detailing the cost and schedule reserve requirements for formulating and executing spaceflight programs.

When NASA constructed its 2018 replan for the JWST project, it took into account the remaining integration and test activities planned prior to launch, known technology challenges that presented risks to schedule, as well as potential future risks. The project’s replan reflected a planned schedule reserve above the level indicated by Goddard policy, which would have been approximately 5 months at that time. Instead, the new schedule included a total of 293 days or 9.6 months of schedule reserve, with approximately 6 months of this reserve to be managed at the project level and the remainder held by the program at NASA headquarters. Following the replan, the project and the contractor worked toward a launch date in November 2020, which would have required none of the schedule reserve managed at the NASA headquarters level. However, the committed launch date under the replan, where all available schedule reserve is utilized, is now March 2021.

JWST’s Use of Award Fees

NASA’s cost-plus-award-fee contract with Northrop Grumman has spanned approximately 17 years, during which time there have been significant variances in performance. These types of contracts are suitable when uncertainties in scope of work or cost of services prevent the use of contract types where prices are fixed. Award fee contracts provide contractors the opportunity to obtain additional fee beyond the costs charged to the government for enhanced levels of performance in areas identified in the contract’s award fee plan. Award fees may be used when key elements of performance cannot be defined objectively, and, as such, require the project officials’ judgment to assess contractor performance. For JWST’s contract with Northrop Grumman, these areas include cost, schedule, technical, and business management and are established in the contract’s award fee plan, which allows for the award of a scaled fee based on assessed performance. This plan has been revised over the life of the contract to incentivize performance in certain areas, but it has always required Northrop Grumman to meet a minimum standard to receive any award fee. Over the course of the JWST contract, nearly $250 million dollars will have been available to Northrop Grumman through this incentive. We have found that when NASA and the contractor have made revisions to fee evaluation criteria to focus on certain aspects of performance, the contractor has been responsive to the new criteria during its work on the JWST project.

Little Margin for Error Remains with Challenging Integration and Test Work Ahead

Though the JWST project has made significant progress since our last report in March 2019, technical challenges have required the use of most of the project’s available schedule reserve. According to NASA officials, the contractor has found ways to replenish reserve, but NASA is still reviewing some of these methods and the project continues to work through significant integration and testing events with less than a quarter of the schedule reserve allotted to it in June 2018. The technical challenges have resulted in prolonged employment of the contractor workforce, which is the primary driver for increased costs.

NASA Has Completed Key Testing and Integration Steps and Continues to Address Known Risks

Following the June 2018 replan, the project has achieved a number of integration and testing milestones and has taken steps to address previously identified technical challenges. Since our March 2019 JWST report, the program has completed testing on the individual component elements of the observatory and has integrated them to start observatory level testing, the last of five phases of integration and testing. Leading up to observatory integration, the project completed thermal vacuum testing of the spacecraft element in May 2019. This testing helped to ensure that JWST hardware will function properly in the vacuum of space and withstand significant temperature variations during deployment and operation, and provided data to corroborate modelling on which the observatory’s mission is based. Further, the project completed the last major testing milestone for optical telescope and science instrumentation elements—deployment of the secondary mirror assembly—in August 2019. This secondary mirror focuses the light collected by the 18 hexagonal primary mirrors of JWST into a beam and directs it toward scientific equipment aboard the observatory. Integration of the observatory components was completed in August 2019, and the program has deployed the sunshield as part of observatory integration and testing.

NASA has also taken steps to address challenges noted in our previous reports. For example, In February 2018, we found that Northrop Grumman planned to modify the design of the sunshield’s membrane tensioning system in response to a risk of a cable snagging during deployment. NASA approved this redesign in May 2019 and employed a new approach to cable management that involves modification and replacement of certain cable clips and routing cables differently to manage slack that could cause snags.

We found in March 2019 that the project office identified concerns that trapped air in the folded sunshield membrane could put too much stress on the observatory when the launch vehicle fairing depressurizes—the fairing is the part of the rocket that encapsulates JWST during flight. NASA, Northrop Grumman, European Space Agency, and European vendors responsible for operating and producing the launch vehicle have worked together to study this issue and have designed vents for the fairing that will mitigate the risk of damage to JWST. The new fairing vent design is expected to be tested aboard a rocket planned to launch in the spring of 2020.

Technical Challenges Have Significantly Reduced Schedule Margin, with Considerable Integration and Testing Ahead

Despite the major accomplishments of the past year, the program has identified new technical issues that present risk for meeting the 2018 replan’s schedule requirements. Multiple technical issues have contributed to the use of schedule reserve since the June 2018 replan, but two identified in March and April 2019 have had the most significant effect. The program identified two significant anomalies during pre-testing events for the spacecraft element’s thermal vacuum testing, which first delayed thermal vacuum testing and then required additional time for investigation and implementation of solutions. Specifically, a traveling wave tube amplifier and a command and telemetry processor had errant powering issues during testing. These are important components of the observatory’s communication systems that enable JWST to send large amounts of science data and telemetry to the ground segment at high speed.

Though the anomalies occurred at the same time and were both power- related, NASA does not believe they are related and has initiated separate review boards to determine solutions. The amplifier failure is attributed to workmanship issues on the part of a subcontractor. As of October 2019, the exact cause of the processor anomaly remained under investigation, but the electrical problem had been isolated to faults within specific circuit cards. NASA has taken steps to address the risks presented by both anomalies: it has received replacement amplifiers and has upgraded and tested an engineering model processor to replace the faulty one aboard the observatory if necessary.

As a result of technical issues discovered since the June 2018 replan, the JWST program has had to use significantly more schedule reserve than it planned to and has been working towards the replan’s formally committed launch date of March 2021. As of October 2019, the project had used 224 days of schedule reserve, or about 76 percent of the total project and program-held schedule reserve incorporated into the June 2018 replan. All project-held schedule margin was used by March 2019, a point at which the project would have retained approximately 4 months of reserve according to its original plan. At one point since our March 2019 report, the project had as little as 18 percent of its total schedule reserve left, but contractor-led corrective action plans regained time through found efficiencies. As a result of these challenges, the project’s reserve fell below what is indicated by Goddard policy. NASA determined in May 2019 that the November 2020 launch date that the project had hoped to achieve was no longer feasible, and switched focus to meeting the committed launch date of March 2021. Figure 2 shows the level of planned reserve for JWST, reserve indicated by Goddard policy, and the project’s actual use of schedule reserve.

Since then, however, the JWST project has determined that the March 2021 launch readiness date may not be feasible either, based on a detailed assessment of risks, costs, and schedule. In October 2019, the project completed a joint cost and schedule confidence level analysis in response to a GAO recommendation made in a previous report on the JWST program. Because of schedule delays resulting from technical challenges coupled with remaining risks faced by the project, the analysis assessed only a 12 percent confidence level for the project’s ability to meet the March 2021 launch readiness date. NASA typically establishes its cost and schedule baseline commitments at 70 percent confidence level. According to the analysis, this 70 percent baseline confidence level is associated with a July 2021 launch date. The project does not currently intend to change the launch readiness date in response to this analysis alone, but plans to assess the feasibility of the launch readiness date again in spring 2020 after significant technical tasks are completed.

NASA and Northrop Grumman have a plan to recover schedule reserve but certain portions of the plan remain under technical review. Following the amplifier and processor anomalies, Northrop Grumman developed a corrective action plan to recover schedule reserve, and the contractor and NASA continue to look for ways to gain efficiencies. In June 2019, Northrop Grumman suggested a number of potential schedule optimization steps that were reviewed by NASA management. Northrop Grumman has begun to be implement some of these steps. If all steps are taken, the contractor estimates 65 days of project schedule will be recovered, nearly doubling the amount of reserve available to the project when the anomalies were discovered. Among the efforts described in this corrective action plan are to streamline aspects of vibration testing and to modify build and repair schedules so that a major panel on the spacecraft will only have to be opened once. Combined, these two steps would save an estimated 46 days. However, officials noted that for the plan for a single panel opening to remain viable, corrective actions for the amplifier and processor replacements would need to remain on schedule. The project continues to review some of Northrop Grumman’s proposed efficiencies, but more than half of these schedule savings have already been incorporated into the schedule reserve forecast.

The project also continues to identify and monitor risks that could potentially result in further use of schedule margin. As suggested by the IRB, the project has led a number of audits looking for embedded risks. As of November, most of the audits planned have been completed and NASA identified some new risks. The following are some of the risks the project is monitoring that could affect schedule:

The project found that certain bolts, determined to be deficient on another Northrop Grumman program, were used during the construction of the observatory. A study of this issue found that the bolts used did not meet specifications and could pose a mechanical strength risk. The unused bolts have been identified and isolated, but 501 were installed in the observatory. NASA is performing strength testing to determine if the bolts are strong enough, but some of the deficient bolts may need to be replaced, pending the findings of these tests.

The project reported in August 2019 that grounding straps on the spacecraft’s momentum flap came loose during vibration testing. This flap will act as balance against solar pressure that could cause unwanted movement of the observatory while in orbit. Observatory- level vibration testing cannot begin until the flap is removed, repaired, and replaced aboard the spacecraft.

In September 2019, the project found that a non-explosive actuator on one of its membrane retention devices did not fire as planned. These devices, which help to unfurl the sunshield of the spacecraft, are supposed to be electrically redundant, but only one of the two mechanisms used to fire the actuator worked during the test. The program reports that there are approximately 180 actuators on the JWST and the failure of any one of these actuators could result in the total loss of JWST science mission objectives. If the redundancy for the actuators is reduced, it would have a major impact on system reliability.

The project is evaluating whether it needs to replace certain membrane retention devices that may not be able to withstand the coupled pressure placed upon them by the launch and newly designed fairing ventilation. Testing in the past did not account for all aspects of the pressures placed upon this hardware during launch and spaceflight. The project indicated that it is completing an analysis to determine if stronger devices need to be installed.

The JWST project office reviews and reports on these and other risks monthly. As of October 2019, the project is tracking 50 risks—three more than when we last reported on JWST—of which 12 continue to be assessed as moderate concerns. Of the 50, 23 have been assessed to be at acceptable levels of risk but continue to be monitored should changes affect their status. For example, the risk associated with cabling within the sunshield was elevated in October 2019 when the project found that further testing was needed to ensure slack did not present an unacceptable threat to the spacecraft during deployment. Finally, nine of the 50 risks currently tracked by the project are related to the more than 300 single points of failure aboard the observatory.

The project must conduct significant integration and testing activities in the coming months that could present further challenges. Our previous work on major NASA acquisition programs found that integration and testing is the phase when challenges are most likely to be found and schedules can slip. The science elements and the spacecraft have only recently been integrated. NASA will have to manage seven top-level integration and testing steps between October 2019 and December 2020 to include observatory-level vibration testing, sunshield deployment and stow, and electrical testing and repairs. Currently, this will all have to be completed with a diminished amount of schedule reserve. Northrop Grumman and NASA officials we interviewed agreed that no other major complication, such as those on the scale of the traveling wave tube amplifier and command and telemetry processor anomalies, can happen without putting the March 2021 launch date in jeopardy.

Technical Challenges May Also Drive Additional Costs for the Project

As we found in March 2019, changes to JWST project’s life-cycle cost estimate are principally driven by schedule extension, which requires keeping the contractor’s workforce longer than expected to complete integration and testing. We also found that NASA’s cost estimate for the 2018 replan was based on a more gradual workforce reduction schedule than previously used by the Northrop Grumman. NASA continues to forecast an overall reduction in contractor and government workforce following the project’s launch readiness date with continued, steady support by the Space Telescope Science Institute during remaining development and post-launch phases of the program (see figure 3).

The program reports that cost reserve is generally sufficient for planned work but technical challenges could cause workforce costs to increase. The cost and schedule analysis completed by the project in October 2019 indicated that the project will not exceed the cost commitment established in the 2018 replan even if launch is delayed further by a few months. According to officials, funding is sufficient to continue work even if the launch date slips 3-4 months past the March 2021 launch date. However, the technical issues identified during integration and testing activities have required the contractor workforce to remain engaged, instead of drawing down as planned. Rather than see a temporary drop in contractor work hours as hardware deliveries were completed ahead of observatory-level testing and integration activities, the project has maintained contractor workforce levels to address the issues described above. The contractor now forecasts approximately 15 percent more workforce hours between 2019 and 2022, the year following launch (see figure 4). Approximately $133 million in cost reserve funding will be used by the project over the next 2 fiscal years to accommodate increasing workforce retention costs.

NASA Has Addressed Recommendations and Sustained Oversight Improvements Since 2018

Since the June 2018 replan, NASA has taken steps to improve the JWST project by implementing Independent Review Board (IRB) recommendations, pursuing other oversight initiatives, and continuing to incentivize contractor performance through the use of award fees. NASA addressed all IRB recommendations even though the agency did not always agree with the IRB on the specific steps needed to address the recommendations. Further, NASA has sustained, and in some cases expanded, the oversight initiatives that were started prior to our last report. The cost plus award fee contract used for JWST development efforts provides the project with a means to incentivize contractor performance related to cost, schedule, technical, and business management goals. Since the 2018 replan, Northrop Grumman’s award fee evaluations have improved but remain below its average for the contract.

NASA Has Completed Its Implementation of IRB Recommendations

NASA assessed all IRB recommendations as closed in October 2019. The IRB made 32 recommendations covering a range of topics from improving communication with stakeholders to identifying embedded problems. NASA implemented its recommendation to establish March 2021 as the committed launch date for JWST through the June 2018 replan. Responsibility for implementing the remaining 31 recommendations was split among headquarters, the program office, and the project. The 10 headquarters- and program-level recommendations covered high-level recommendations dealing with entities outside of the project or communication between upper-level NASA management and the project. The remaining 21 recommendations were implemented at the project level and included lower-level actions related to assessing, preparing for, and improving day-to-day work.

NASA assessed most recommendations as implemented prior to an IRB follow-up assessment, but the IRB found that more work was required for some to completely align with the board’s intent. In February 2019, the IRB found that the steps NASA took for approximately one-third of its recommendations were either inadequate or needed additional work, with the remainder found to be appropriate. Specifically, the IRB categorized 21 of the recommendation responses as appropriate, eight responses as appropriate with additional work needed, and three responses as inadequate. The IRB’s monitoring of the JWST project ended with the February 2019 follow up (see figure 5).

Though NASA agreed with the intent of all the IRB recommendations, it took a different approach than described in the IRB report when implementing the three recommendations where the agency’s response was assessed to be inadequate. NASA conducted additional work for the majority of recommendations assessed by the IRB to be incomplete. However, NASA determined that a few of the IRB recommendations managed at the headquarters level should not be implemented the way they were delineated in the IRB report. Specifically,

The IRB found that the JWST reporting structure was complex, confusing, and ineffective. The IRB made two recommendations for NASA to update its reporting chain. The IRB believed the Science Mission Directorate Associate Administrator should have responsibility of the entire JWST program and the Goddard Space Flight Center Director should be responsible for all aspects of the JWST project. The IRB asserted that restricting the involvement of the Goddard director will reduce the probability of JWST success. NASA agreed that it is important to have clear organizational roles and responsibilities but had a difference of opinion about the best course of action. In November 2018 and July 2019, NASA announced updates to the JWST reporting structure. However, both times it reduced the role of the Goddard director in favor of more direct line of accountability from the JWST program to the Science Mission Directorate Associate Administrator and the NASA Associate Administrator. NASA asserts that these changes will provide more clear accountability for program performance and allow for expedited decision making.

The IRB recommended that NASA’s Launch Services Program should have accountability for the JWST launch. NASA has taken actions to increase the involvement of the Launch Services Program but NASA maintains that it is not prudent or possible for the Launch Services Program to be accountable for the launch because the European Space Agency is contributing the launch vehicle and managing the launch. The IRB recognized the unique circumstances of using an international launch vehicle but continued to assert the importance of Launch Services Program accountability. A minority of IRB members were of the opinion that NASA took appropriate action.

NASA Has Sustained Key Oversight Improvements and Made Additional Improvements Since 2018

NASA has sustained increased oversight and involvement with Northrop Grumman following the announcement of an anticipated cost cap breach in March 2018. Previously reported improvements included both the implementation of IRB recommendations and the pursuit of self-initiated activities, like greater NASA on-site coverage and Northrop Grumman’s culture change campaign designed to shift focus toward quality assurance. Our March 2019 report, provided examples of these changes and initiatives. Table 1 below provides a summary of our previous report findings and the current status of the changes NASA and Northrop Grumman made in providing oversight and ensuring quality.

Since we last reported in March 2019, NASA has made additional oversight changes to further enhance communication with and oversight of the contractor. Most of these changes emphasize greater involvement of NASA specialists in meetings and reviews. NASA officials reported that its increased presence with the contractor has had positive effects for both ensuring project outcomes and increasing morale of the government and contractor workforce. For example, NASA integration and testing leadership is present and embedded in Northrop Grumman’s meetings— directly participating in planning sessions, reporting, and reviews of failures and anomalies. As a result, the project was able to plan for early integration of the observatory and completed key integration activities without being the primary driver of the project’s schedule. According to officials, expanded participation has helped to ensure more realistic exercises that include procedural concerns as well as engineering considerations. NASA officials said that the increased participation has allowed NASA input to be incorporated early—potentially reducing issues in the future. Further, NASA officials believe that the consistent presence of NASA personnel has improved morale—an item highlighted by the IRB—and helped foster greater unity of effort between government and contractor workforces.

Contractor Award Fee Has Fluctuated over Time, but Performance Has Improved Recently

NASA has regularly assessed contractor performance through award fee assessments since the beginning of the contract in 2002. Award fee documentation over the course of the Northrop Grumman contract indicates that contractor performance was assessed as below its average before periods of significant cost and schedule growth. On average, Northrop Grumman has been rated as very good with about three-fourths of evaluations assessing its performance as either excellent or very good. For the award fee evaluations that fall below Northrop Grumman’s average score, cost performance has contributed to the majority of these dips and schedule performance has contributed to almost half. In particular, schedule performance has reduced the contractor’s overall evaluation for all award fee periods since April 2017. The latest dip below the contractor’s average preceded lifecycle cost growth of $828 million and schedule growth of nearly 2.5 years (see figure 6).

Since our March 2019 report, Northrop Grumman’s ratings have improved but remain below its average. For the award fee period from October 2017 through March 2018, Northrop Grumman received an unsatisfactory rating, which resulted in the contractor receiving no award fee for the first and only time in the life of the contract. The unacceptable rating was driven by cost and schedule performance—including the anticipation of breaching the $8 billion congressional cost cap established in response to the 2011 rebaseline. In the following two periods, Northrop Grumman has improved its evaluation, but schedule performance remains a concern. During the last award fee period assessed, NASA was internally managing to a November 2020 launch date. Shortly after the award fee period ended, the project found it could no longer support the November 2020 date and began managing to the March 2021 launch date.

Agency Comments and our Evaluation

We are not making recommendations in this report. We provided a draft of this report to NASA for comment. NASA provided technical comments that, among other things, clarified implementation of schedule recovery steps and updated progress on observatory repairs. We incorporated suggested technical changes as appropriate.

We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional committees, the NASA Administrator, and other interested parties. In addition, the report is available at no charge on the GAO website at http://www.gao.gov.

If you or your staff have any questions on matters discussed in this report, please contact me at (202) 512-4841 or chaplainc@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. GAO staff who made key contributions to this report are listed in appendix IV.

Appendix I: Elements and Major Subsystems of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Observatory

Appendix II: Status of Previous GAO Recommendations on Management of the James Webb Space Telescope Program

In its previous reports on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the GAO has made several recommendations. These recommendations are listed below. Comments reflect the status of the program at the time GAO closed the recommendation.

Appendix III: List of Independent Review Board (IRB) Recommendations

Appendix III: List of Independent Review Board (IRB) Recommendations Telescope (JWST) launch success at the same level of responsibility they have for U.S. launches, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) should contract with Aerospace Corporation for similar accountability. 2 The Goddard Space Flight Center (Goddard) and Northrop Grumman Project Offices should be established as consistent and factual source of all JWST mission status 3 Communications of status and details appropriate for stakeholders need to be presented clearly and frequently. 4 NASA headquarters should be responsible for developing a “communication plan” (messaging strategy) for JWST. 5 Communicating complexity, risk, and science return for JWST is critically important. 6 Use the same criticality and assessment charts for all JWST reporting. 7 NASA should implement a JWST reporting structure where the Science Mission Directorate Associate Administrator has responsibility for the entire JWST program and the Goddard Space Flight Center Director is responsible for all aspects of the project. 8 NASA should revise NASA policy directives to be consistent with the recommendation. 9 Assure consistent, sustained and meaningful engagement of the Science Working Group (SWG). 10 Appoint an executive committee of NASA-selected members of the SWG to act as conduits to the broader community on mission challenges. 11 NASA should designate a Commission Manager. 12 NASA should implement sunshield hardware and simulation elements to aid in sunshield anomaly identification and resolution. 13 Northrop Grumman should establish corrective actions in1) processes, 2) training, 3) personnel certification, 4) discipline to ensure individual accountability and 5) a failure-proof “safety net” through a robust testing, analysis, and inspection process. 14 Goddard and Northrop Grumman should conduct an audit including forensic engineering, hardware pedigree assessment, drawing checks, etc., to identify potential embedded problems. 15 Goddard should conduct an audit of the JWST project residual risk, reviewing the objective evidence of (a) the completed Test As You Fly and Single Point Failures mitigation plans, and (b) failure corrective action effectiveness to determine the “as built” residual risk. 16 The project should reconcile the “as built” residual risk with the expected “as designed” residual risk. 17 NASA should define security requirements and plan for JWST transport to launch site. 18 Develop contingency operations and sparing plan for spacecraft/launch site operations. 19 Develop “pathfinder” JWST simulator and contamination protection systems for integration “dry runs.” 20 Assess shipping vessel contamination environment and develop contingency plans for off-nominal shipping operation. 21 It is critically important that Goddard JWST Project Office maintain responsibility and provide adequate support to ensure Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) mission operations readiness 22 The Project should review all simulators/testbeds and required usage against pre-launch tests and rehearsals, post-launch deployment anomaly resolution, fault isolation, and correction. 23 The Goddard JWST Project Office should develop a staffing plan that meets the needs of integration and test and operational readiness. 24 The project should develop and approve a transition plan that defines the level of mission operations responsibility for STScI as a function of time with independent gate reviews at transition points. 25 Management should unambiguously emphasize the priority of mission success to “working level” personnel. 26 Employees must feel empowered to stop or slow down if the pace or procedures can jeopardize mission success. 27 NASA should assess “top ten” mission success enhancements and implement where appropriate. 28 Responsible Design Engineers should be involved and responsible for their element through the successful commissioning of the observatory. 29 The project should augment integration and test staff; this is critically important to execute the integration and test program. 30 Augment integration and test staff to achieve more realistic work schedules. 31 Implement strategies for improving team morale, such as periodic science lectures for Northrop Grumman personnel and families. 32 The Webb IRB recommends the launch date be established as March 2021 (based upon the Project’s 5/18 assessment of the impact of the membrane cover assembly acoustic anomaly).

Appendix IV: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contact

Staff Acknowledgments

In addition to the contact named above, Raj Chitikila (Assistant Director), Christina Cota-Robles, Carrie Rogers, Ajani Skeete, Jay Tallon, and Thomas Twambly made key contributions to this report. Assistance was also provided by Hannah Brookhart, Brian Bothwell, Lorraine Ettaro, Emile Ettedgui, Laura Greifner, Kaelin Kuhn, Christine Pecora, Roxanna Sun, and Alyssa Weir.