Costly weather satellites may get more funds

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration plans to spend an additional $100 million on a weather satellite program that a congressional watchdog agency says has been beset by mismanagement, delays and cost overruns.

The administration wants the extra money in fiscal year 2010, which begins in October, for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, a cluster of satellites designed for weather forecasts and climate research.

The infusion of cash, which would raise the program's 2010 spending to $382 million, would come even though the satellites are at least $8 billion over budget and the launch of the first satellite will be at least five years late, according to a June 17 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a watchdog office of Congress.

The satellite project is "a poster child for mismanagement," says David Powner, author of the GAO report. "It's clearly up there as one of the most troubled programs that we've looked at."

Both the GAO and an independent review team of former NASA and military officials last month recommended major changes to the satellite program to prevent more cost overruns and schedule delays. No changes have been made so far, stirring the ire of some in Congress.

The "administration needs to disengage from its autopilot management style" and "start making responsible decisions" on the satellite program, says a June 24 Senate Appropriations Committee report.

"You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that our national polar satellite program is on a disastrous path, and unless we make changes immediately, the program will fail," Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chairwoman of the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the satellite program, said in an e-mail.

Even so, the committee approved the administration's request for extra money. Final approval has yet to be granted by Congress.

Administration officials say they'll take action soon. Changes "are required immediately," says spokesman Scott Smullen of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which, together with the Defense Department and NASA, runs the satellite program. He says decisions will be made throughout the summer and that funding needs to be increased in the meantime to ensure the satellites don't fall further behind.