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GAO-17-646R 1 (2017-08-09)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaalba0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 August 9, 2017 Congressional Committees Space Launch: Coordination Mechanisms Facilitate Interagency Information Sharing on Acquisitions The Department of Defense (DOD)-including the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)-and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) spend over a billion dollars per year on space launch. These launches are for satellites, probes, and cargo capsules that are critical for carrying out government functions such as protected military communications, missile warning, navigation, intelligence collection, scientific discovery, and delivering supplies to the International Space Station. The Air Force acquires most launch services for the military services and for most NRO missions through its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, and NASA acquires launch services for civil sector spacecraft missions through its NASA Launch Services Program. While DOD and NASA use some of the same providers for their launches, each agency has separate acquisition processes and launch requirements. We have noted in the past that interagency coordination in space launch acquisitions has the potential to help leverage the government's buying power and eliminate the potential for redundancy and duplication.1 Such coordination can also help the government make more targeted investments in technology development, address industrial base issues or gaps, and ensure that programs undertaken by each agency are complementary to each another. While DOD and NASA have a history of working together in many areas of launch, studies we and others have conducted have pointed to opportunities for improved coordination. The Joint Explanatory Statement to the Carl Levin and Howard P. Buck McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 contained a provision for the Secretary of DOD, in consultation with the Administrator of NASA and the heads of other appropriate agencies of the federal government, to conduct a study to identify and assess opportunities for coordination among federal agencies in space launch acquisition efforts and provide a summary of lessons learned by DOD and NASA regarding their launch service programs to certain congressional committees.2 The statement also includes a provision for us to assess DOD's study and update the related space launch findings and recommendations reported in the 2012 GAO report on 1Broadly speaking, agency collaboration or coordination can be defined as any joint activity that is intended to produce more public value than can be produced when organizations act alone. 2joint Explanatory Statement to accompany the Carl Levin and Howard P. Buck McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, Pub. L. No. 113-291 (2014). GAO-17-646R Space Launch Coordination Page 1

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