Under the provisions of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, NASA is authorized to acquire aircraft. Since its creation, NASA has operated a small fleet of aircraft, primarily to provide passenger transportation. According to the 2004 General Services Administration’s Federal Aviation Interactive Reporting System, NASA is one of six civilian agencies that reported operating aircraft primarily for the purpose of passenger transportation. In fiscal year 2003, NASA reported owning and operating a fleet of 85 aircraft valued at $362 million, including aircraft dedicated to program support, research and development, and passenger transportation. NASA reported owning 53 aircraft that were used to provide support to programs such as the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and Astronaut programs. The majority of these aircraft are located at the Johnson Space Center. For example, shuttle trainers are one type of program support aircraft. These aircraft have been modified to duplicate the shuttle’s approach profile, cockpit cues, and handling qualities so that astronaut pilots can see and feel simulated approaches and landings before attempting an actual shuttle landing. NASA reports owning 25 aircraft to support its research and development efforts. These aircraft have been modified to support the agency’s mission to conduct aeronautical research at varying altitudes and atmospheric conditions. For example, NASA operates a modified Learjet 23 as a research platform for the Airborne Terrestrial Land Application Scanner. NASA owns seven aircraft that are used to provide passenger transportation. In fiscal year 2004, NASA reported its seven passenger aircraft carried nearly 10,000 passengers and logged nearly 4 million passenger miles. Figure 1 provides an overview of the aircraft owned and operated by NASA to provide passenger transportation and their location. In addition, NASA obtained passenger transportation services through the Economy Act, a cooperative agreement, and a fractional ownership contract with DOD, FAA, and Flexjet, respectively. DOD–-Under provisions of the Economy Act, NASA acquired additional passenger aircraft services from DOD using Gulfstream V aircraft. DOD provided documentation for three NASA flights of more than 60 flight hours during fiscal years 2003 and 2004. DOD billed NASA approximately $290,000 for these services. FAA—During fiscal years 2003 and 2004, NASA and FAA entered into a shared-use cooperative agreement for four aircraft, three of which were owned by FAA and the other by NASA. All four aircraft were housed at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. In exchange for contributing its one aircraft and $1.1 million annually during 2003 and 2004, NASA received the right to 450 total flight hours per year on any of the four aircraft. Under this agreement, NASA could schedule flights on these aircraft with a minimum of 24 hours advance notice. FAA agreed to pay routine maintenance, fuel, and personnel costs associated with the NASA aircraft. NASA was also allowed to purchase additional hours, beyond the agreed 450 hours, at the hourly rate for the specific aircraft used. During the 2-year period, NASA utilized the four aircraft in this arrangement for approximately 1,600 flight hours for a reported cost of $4.5 million, which included charges for the original 900-hour agreement plus charges for additional hours. Flexjet–-In October 2000, conferees on the NASA fiscal year 2001 appropriation bills directed NASA to prepare a plan that considers whether fractional ownership of passenger aircraft may be beneficial. In July 2002, pursuant to the conferee guidance, NASA awarded a contract with Flexjet for a 2-year demonstration program to determine the viability of using fractional ownership to meet NASA’s administrative air transportation requirements. Under the 2-year demonstration NASA reported cost of approximately $3.5 million in return for a total of approximately 800 flight hours of passenger transportation services. OMB Circular No. A-126 (Revised), Improving the Management and Use of Government Aircraft (May 22, 1992), prescribes policies for executive agencies to follow in acquiring, managing, using, accounting for the costs of, and disposing of government aircraft. This circular applies to all government-owned, leased, chartered, and rental aircraft and related services operated by executive agencies, except for aircraft while in use by or in support of the President or Vice President. OMB Circular No. A-126, section 6, a., provides that the number and size of aircraft acquired and retained by an agency and the capacity of those aircraft to carry passengers and cargo should not exceed the level necessary to meet the agency’s mission requirements. OMB Circular No. A-126, section 5, b., defines mission requirements to include activities related to the transport of troops and/or equipment, training, evacuation (including medical evacuation), intelligence and counter narcotics activities, search and rescue, transportation of prisoners, use of defense attaché-controlled aircraft, and aeronautical research and space and science applications. OMB Circular No. A-126, section 5, b. explicitly states that mission requirements do not include official travel to give speeches, attend conferences or meetings, or make routine site visits. In addition to the policies prescribed by OMB Circular No. A-126, agencies must also follow the guidance of OMB Circular No. A-76 before purchasing, leasing, or otherwise acquiring aircraft and related services, to assure that these services cannot be obtained from and operated by the private sector more cost effectively. Further, agencies must review periodically the continuing need for all of their aircraft and the cost effectiveness of their aircraft operations in accordance with the requirements of OMB Circular No. A-76 and report the results of these reviews to GSA and OMB. Agencies are to report any excess aircraft and release all aircraft that are not fully justified by these reviews. Once an agency has justified that it has a valid mission requirement for owning aircraft, OMB Circular No. A-126, section 8, a., permits agencies to use aircraft for official, but nonmission-required travel when: no commercial airline or aircraft service is reasonably available (i.e., able to meet the traveler’s departure and/or arrival requirements within a 24-hour period, unless the traveler demonstrates that extraordinary circumstances require a shorter period) to fulfill effectively the agency requirement; or actual cost of using a government aircraft is not more than the cost of using commercial airlines. OMB Circular No. A-126, section 14, also provides that agencies maintain systems that will enable them to: (1) justify the cost-effective use of government aircraft in lieu of commercially available air transportation services, and the use of one government aircraft in lieu of another; (2) recover the costs of operating government aircraft when appropriate; (3) determine the cost effectiveness of various aspects of their aircraft programs; and (4) conduct the cost comparisons required by OMB Circular No. A-76 to justify in-house operation of government aircraft versus procurement of commercially available passenger aircraft services. Attachment B of OMB Circular No. A-126 also provides that agency systems must accumulate and summarize costs into the standard passenger aircraft program cost elements. For example, standard cost elements would include items such as fixed and variable crew costs, maintenance costs, fuel costs, and overhaul and repair costs. In addition, the General Services Administration (GSA) established governmentwide policy on the operation of aircraft by the federal government—including policies for managing the acquisition, use, and disposal of aircraft that the agencies own or hire. GSA publishes its regulatory policies in the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.). GSA also publishes a number of other guides and manuals to help agencies manage the acquisition, use, and disposal of aircraft. These publications include the U.S. Government Aircraft Cost Accounting Guide, which contains information on how agencies should account for aircraft costs, and the Fleet Modernization Planning Guide, which provides guidance on developing cost-effective fleet replacement plans. NASA’s Inspector General (IG) issued two reports on NASA’s passenger aircraft, one in 1995 and another in 1999. Both NASA IG reports were critical of NASA’s management of these aircraft, identifying weaknesses in NASA’s accounting and justification for its passenger aircraft. In its 1995 report, the NASA IG reported that NASA passenger aircraft cost an estimated $5.8 million more annually when compared with commercial airline transportation. The IG recommended actions with respect to NASA’s (1) compliance with many of the provisions of OMB Circular Nos. A-126 and A-76 (including fully considering commercial airlines as an alternative to NASA operations of passenger aircraft services), (2) use of outdated and incomplete cost data to justify trips and approval of some trips without adequate justifications, and (3) use of passenger aircraft that were more expensive to operate than using commercial airline services. The IG’s 1999 report focused on one passenger aircraft located at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and estimated that the cost of commercial airlines in comparison with the NASA-owned aircraft was $2.9 million less over a 5-year period. Similar to the 1995 report, the 1999 report was also critical of NASA’s implementation of guidance in OMB Circular Nos. A-126 and A-76. Further, the report noted that the agency had not effectively addressed actions recommended in the 1995 report concerning the need to more fully and effectively evaluate the use of commercial airlines. The IG recommended that NASA management dispose of the passenger aircraft at Marshall and instead use commercial airlines to satisfy Marshall’s air transportation requirements. NASA management disagreed with the findings of both IG reports, stating that commercial airlines cannot effectively meet all the mission requirements and the capability of NASA aircraft outweighs the marginal costs savings of total reliance on commercial airlines. An analysis of NASA’s reported costs for its passenger aircraft services shows they are an estimated five times more costly than commercial airline coach tickets. For purposes of this aggregate comparative cost analysis, we considered available NASA reported data on costs applicable to its passenger aircraft services—both variable and fixed costs--in comparison with commercial airline service costs.