Managing a "Better, Faster, Cheaper" LightSat Program

The Air Force Space Test Experiments Platform (STEP) is helping pioneer the "better, faster, cheaper" approach being touted in the aerospace industry as the way to do space missions in the future. As an experiment in technology development to provide a very capable but low cost, test bed in space, STEP also provides an excellent experimental opportunity in program management and contracts management. The concurrent procurement of a series of space vehicles (STEP Missions 0, 1, 2, and 3) offers an opportunity to exercise a streamlined approach to management in a production type environment. Dealing with various types of experimental payloads, in different stages of completion, and with launch vehicles still under development, many opportunities as well as traps were traversed by customer and contractor management. Working under relatively undefined terms such as "contractor practices and procedures" and "government insight versus oversight", holding special TIMs in place of formal Design Reviews or Quarterly Program Reviews, all under a Fixed Price contract with a short schedule, offers special challenges and lessons learned. The early STEP missions have been a grand experiment for both the contractor and the customer. The presentation deals with the challenges and benefits experienced on both sides of the contract. The presentation attempts to deal with the questions "Is this the approach we are to follow in the 90s to keep the US ahead in the emerging lightsat market? Can both sides of the procurement handle this new way of doing business in the future?"