Challenges in the management of faster-better-cheaper space missions

NASA has recently changed the management style of its unmanned space program to a faster-better-cheaper (FBC) mode of operation. FBC projects have focused scopes and are developed in three years for about two hundred million dollars. A current study of four missions (Cassini as a base case, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Pathfinder, and Deep Space Probe 1) allows us to compare the new management formula in its current transition phase to the traditional “flagship” projects, and to examine what this formula may yield in the long run. In this paper, we examine the short-term features of the current missions that may require some review and consideration before applying the same formula to future projects