(2007-11-13) Spy Satellite Project Failure

The (2002) panel reported that the project, called Future Imagery Architecture, was far behind schedule and would most likely cost $2 billion to $3 billion more than planned, according to records from the satellite agency, the National Reconnaissance Office. Even so, the experts recommended pressing on. Just months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks (World Trade Center), and with the new satellites promising improved, more frequent images of foreign threats like terrorist training camps, nuclear weapons plants and enemy military maneuvers, they advised Mr. Teets to seek an infusion of $700 million. It took two more years, several more review panels and billions more dollars before the government finally killed the project - perhaps the most spectacular and expensive Project Failure in the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects... In an interview, Mr. Young said the (2002) panel genuinely thought the project could be saved. Several members, though, said the group should have called for ending the program but stopped short because of its powerful supporters in US Congress and the George W Bush administration. Among the most influential was Representative Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, whose Southern California district (EarMark) includes the Boe Ing complex where the satellites were being assembled. The death sentence for F.I.A. was finally written in 2005. Another review board pronounced the program deeply flawed and said propping it up would require another $5 billion - raising the ante to $18 billion - and five more years. And even with that life support, Mr. Fitzgerald recalled, the panel was not confident that Boeing could come through.