Predicting Cost and Schedule Growth for Military and Civil Space Systems

Abstract

This research seeks to identify factors contributing to military and civil space system cost and schedule growth, quantify the relative impact of these factors, and establishing a set of models for predicting cost and schedule growth. The analysis consists of logistic and multiple regression to assess 21 Department of Defense and 71 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space programs. The study finds that, for military spaces systems, communications missions, ground equipment, firm-fixed price contracts, and increased program manager tenure are all predictive of lower cost growth. For NASA space programs, the study finds that smaller programs (by total cost), more massive spacecraft, microgravity missions, and space physics missions are predictive of higher cost growth. For schedule growth of NASA programs, the study finds that larger programs and those developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Northrop Grumman, or international developers are predictive of increased schedule growth, whereas those programs developed by Johns Hopkins University are predictive of reduced schedule growth.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA482546

Entities

People

  • Christina F. Rusnock

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Astronautics
  • Contracts
  • Cost Analysis
  • Databases
  • Department Of Defense
  • Information Retrieval
  • Information Science
  • Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
  • Jet Propulsion
  • Knowledge Management
  • National Security
  • Reconnaissance Satellites
  • Regression Analysis
  • Spacecraft
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering.
  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis

Technology Areas

  • Space