Faster, Better, Cheaper : Low-Cost Innovation in the U. S. Space Program

by McCurdy, Howard E.

• ISBN13: 9780801867200
• ISBN10: 0801867207
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-11-14
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

In Faster, Better, Cheaper: Low-Cost Innovation in the U.S. Space Program, Howard E. McCurdy examines NASA's recent efforts to save money while improving mission frequency and performance. McCurdy details the sixteen missions undertaken during the 1990s -- including an orbit of the moon, deployment of three space telescopes, four Earth-orbiting satellites, two rendezvous with comets and asteroids, and a test of an ion propulsion engine -- which cost less than the sum traditionally spent on a single, conventionally planned planetary mission. He shows how these missions employed smaller spacecraft and cheaper technology to undertake less complex and more specific tasks in outer space. While the technological innovation and space exploration approach that McCurdy describes is still controversial, the historical perspective on its disappointments and triumphs points to ways of developing "faster, better, and cheaper" as a management manifesto.

Author Biography

Howard E. McCurdy is a professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University.

Table of Contents

List of Boxes	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
The Reform	1	(12)
The nature of the challenge	13	(18)
Cost Control	31	(13)
The Philosophy	44	(17)
Mars Pathfinder	61	(18)
Organization	79	(27)
Technology	106	(17)
Risk and Reliability	123	(15)
Future Implications	138
Notes	157	(169)
Index	169