Faster, Better, Cheaper: Low-Cost Innovation in the U.S. Space Program (New Series in NASA History) - Softcover

McCurdy, Prof Howard E. E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801877490 ISBN 13: 9780801877490

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Howard E. McCurdy is a professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University and the author of Faster, Better, Cheaper: Low-Cost Innovation in the U.S. Space Program; Inside NASA: High Technology and Organizational Change in the U.S. Space Program; and the coauthor of Robots in Space: Technology, Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel, all published by Johns Hopkins.

Edition details

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801877490
• ISBN 13: 9780801877490
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192