Ineffective management and cost overruns are plaguing an already troubled satellite system for tracking weather and climate, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported to Congress on 17 June.
The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS; illustrated above) was conceived in 1994 as a three-way project between the Department of Defense, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA. "This tri-agency experiment has been an epic failure," says the GAO's David Powner.
In 2002, NPOESS was supposed to cost $7 billion for six satellites, with the first to launch in 2009 (Nature 450, 782–785; 2007). Auditors now think that the current estimate — $14 billion for four satellites beginning in 2014 — is at least $1 billion off the mark. A separate report, conducted by an independent review team for NPOESS management, recommends that the White House appoint a top-level decision-maker, and suggests that NOAA should be made lead agency on the system.
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More financial woes for climate satellites. Nature 459, 1045 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/4591045e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4591045e
