Formulation of NASA’s Constellation Program

Paper number

IAC-07-B3.1.06

Author

Dr. Jennifer Rhatigan, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Johnson Space Center, United States

Year

2007

Abstract

NASA has recently formed the Constellation Program to achieve the objectives of maintaining American presence in low Earth orbit, returning to the Moon for purposes of establishing an outpost, and exploring Mars and beyond in the first half of the 21st century.  The Constellation Program’s heritage rests on the successes and lessons learned from NASA’s previous human spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle and ISS (International Space Station). This paper describes the rationale behind the formulation of the Constellation Program, including organizational structure, workforce structure and recruiting, as well as the approaches to requirements generation, budget formulation, communications, operational philosophies, and procurement strategies.

NASA’s history of program formulation, development and operations was a primary resource in the formulation of the Constellation Program. We researched historical records from the Apollo Program, and it’s predecessors Gemini and Mercury, as well as the more recent Space Shuttle and International Space Station Programs. Lessons learned from the ‘faster-better-cheaper’ era were incorporated. Most importantly, consultation not only with histories, but also with individual managers involved in key decision making in past programs, formed the basis of the structure of today’s Constellation Program.  In addition, much of the Constellation hardware traces it’s history to previous programs and that corporate history and management structure has been leveraged to a great extent.
The model that most closely resembles the current mission is the Apollo “5-box” management structure.  This was adapted and tailored to the Constellation Program’s more evolutionary objectives. Constellation is envisioned to have developmental aspects throughout it’s life in that new developments to support the next mission will start in phases as current developments become operational.  For instance, lunar outpost development will start after the low Earth orbit portions of the program are operational.

The Constellation Program formulation was initiated in the Fall of 2005 and substantially completed by mid-2006. The program is evolving within this structure of organization, requirments and funding as its foundation. A major challenge is to stand up an organization that draws on the best expertise in the Agency while maintaining primary focus on the currently operational Space Shuttle and ISS programs.

The formulation of the Constellation Program is a robust system, based on the best of NASA’s heritage, and designed to evolve as technical and programmatic needs demand. 

Abstract document

IAC-07-B3.1.06.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-07-B3.1.06.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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