Augustine’s Laws

Taylor Dinerman reviews them in the context of the current NASA:

Law number XXIV would seem a particularly good one: “The only thing more costly that stretching the schedule of an established project is accelerating it, which is itself the most costly action known to man.” The urge of many politicians to spend more on NASA’s Constellation program so as to shrink the “Gap” is well known. The impact of such a decision on the rest of NASA, or on the future space exploration program, is obviously something that Mr. Augustine is going to have to look at very closely.

Another insight: “…we are attempting to develop major new systems with ten year technology, eight year programs, a five year plan, three year people, and one year dollars.” Constellation is trying to escape this dilemma by using existing technology: this may work, but it is dangerous since it assumes that the systems involved are already well understood, something that was so heavily critiqued in the 2003 Columbia Accident Investigation Board report.

As he notes, they still hold up a quarter of a century later. They explain well why a government space program is always doomed to disappoint its boosters.

One thought on “Augustine’s Laws”

  1. Norm Augustine has captured the government defense aerospace industry “sprawling on a pin” for dissection. In one particularly humorous bit he points out that just when the aerospace industry’s trend to more and more expensive combat aircraft looked like it might be stalled since adding weight is anathema to aircraft — along came something expensive and weightless to fill the gap — software! This is one terrific information.

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