Last week, NASA launched a small X-ray telescope called NuStar. NuStar is a Small Explorer class mission (SMEX). The idea behind SMEXs is that scientists submit proposals to NASA and then the space agency selects what it thinks is the best proposal that will stay within a budget cap. If the program doesn’t stay within budget, NASA can cancel the mission.
NASA actually did ax another SMEX recently, a spacecraft named GEMS that was to launch in late 2014, after it was projected to bust its budget. That would seem like a victory for taxpayers and program management. Don’t give NASA too much credit though — or really much credit at all, as too big to failure is live and well at America’s space agency. Case in point: The James Webb Space Telescope, which is very late and literally billions of dollars over budget, yet continues to progress toward launch later this decade.
