Following NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) releasing a report on October 10 of their audit of the agency’s management of the Space Launch System (SLS) Stages contract, NASA has reacted by confirming they have already taken measures to assure that there is not a stoppage of work on the SLS Stages. The OIG concluded that the cost of the work under the development contract with Boeing was likely to be much higher than its existing value and that it was unlikely that NASA will meet the end of its current target window for the first SLS launch on Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1).
The report also noted that existing contract only covers the stages for two SLS Block 1 vehicles, adding that there is no stage on contract yet for one of the two recently rescheduled launches.