Faster, better, cheaper : low-cost innovation in the U.S. space program

Howard E. McCurdy examines NASA's efforts to save money while improving mission frequency and performance.

McCurdy details the 16 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.