Bechtel’s $1.3 billion launch pad mission for NASA is one step nearer to completion after a sequence of delays.
The Reston, Virginia-based contractor introduced that it efficiently lifted and positioned the primary tower module, Tower Module 4, on the house company’s Cellular Launcher 2 mission on the Kennedy Area Heart in Florida, in response to a Jan. 6 information launch.
However the firm’s announcement got here after an August 2024 report from NASA’s Workplace of Inspector Common that detailed repeated extensions of the mission’s timeline and finances and positioned a lot of the blame on Bechtel. The doc adopted a earlier audit the OIG carried out in June 2022.
Ballooning prices
The report pins the unique ML2 contract, awarded to Bechtel in June 2019, at $383 million, with scheduled completion by March 2023.
As soon as the construction is full, it is going to be integral to NASA’s mission to return people to the Moon through its Artemis program, with a give attention to Artemis IV, which can ship astronauts to reside within the first lunar house station, often known as Gateway.
After delays in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, NASA estimated in December 2023 that the contract had grown to $1.3 billion, with completion pushed out to November 2026, in response to the doc. Then in June 2024, the company informed Congress that whole mission prices — not simply Bechtel’s portion of the contract — could be $1.8 billion, with completion delayed till September 2027.
The Inspector Common concluded in its report that the mission is now more likely to exceed $2.7 billion — with $2.5 billion going to Bechtel — greater than thrice the mission’s preliminary whole estimate. It additionally projected that completion of the construct received’t come till 2029, after the present Artemis IV launch date of September 2028.
“Our projections are based mostly on the substantial price progress that the Bechtel contract has incurred during the last 3 years, previous efficiency points noticed throughout design with the manufacturing of detailed drawings for metal fabrication and administration of the launcher’s weight, and the numerous quantity of development work that continues to be,” the OIG wrote.
Completely different timelines
Nevertheless, Bechtel forecasts a completion date of November 2026, whereas NASA mentioned in a response to a draft report that it expects the mission to be completed by 2027.
The OIG acknowledged that NASA officers took concern with a few of its conclusions.
In response to a July draft of the ultimate report, NASA’s Exploration Programs Growth Mission Directorate mentioned, “ESDMD disagrees with the OIG-projected ML2 price estimate of $2.7 billion. Merely utilizing a straight-line extrapolation, because the OIG did, doesn’t precisely mirror the present growth state of affairs.”
The identical doc praised Bechtel’s work at one other level, stating, “Lately, Bechtel accomplished a vital integration milestone two weeks forward of schedule, marking a vital development in its development and meeting capabilities throughout the Artemis Marketing campaign.”
Venture historical past
Bechtel started development of the launch website in August 2023. It responded to the OIG report on Sept. 26, 2024, the place it famous that the mission’s completion date has remained unchanged for the final two years. It additionally mentioned that it was inaccurate to attribute all $594 million of contract delays to Bechtel’s efficiency, alongside what Bechtel claims are a number of different factual errors.
“The price will increase and schedule delays for the reason that begin of the ML2 mission have been multi-faceted, ensuing from modifications to the contract — each directed and circumstantial (ex. COVID-19 impacts and weather-related delays) — in addition to impacts associated to [Bechtel National Inc.’s] efficiency,” Bechtel mentioned within the response.
The corporate informed Development Dive in an emailed assertion that it discovered the report deeply disappointing, and that it has approached the mission with security in thoughts.
“Whereas we perceive that the OIG is charged with issuing its view of NASA’s and Bechtel’s progress relative to price and schedule, our overriding dedication stays on delivering a secure and high-quality product,” the assertion mentioned.
Onward and upward
The position of the primary tower module marked the start of a brand new section of speedy vertical set up of the remaining tower modules, which the builder will stack successively on prime of each other over the approaching months. As soon as full, the construction will attain its full top of 38 tales.
NASA and Bechtel are utilizing a modular method to the development of the tower, which the contractor claims reduces dangers to staff by constructing the construction decrease to the bottom.
Module 4, which weighed over 550,000 kilos, needed to be lifted by a crane and was constructed from parts delivered by over 110 vehicles, in response to the information launch. The tower took over a month to assemble.
