According to a new report from NASA’s inspector general, the estimated cost of the tower, which is a little bit taller than the length of a US football field with its end zones, is now $2.7 billion.

This is a remarkable explosion in costs as, only five years ago, NASA awarded a contract to the Bechtel engineering firm to build and deliver a second mobile launcher (ML-2) for $383 million, with a due date of March 2023. That deadline came and went with Bechtel barely beginning to cut metal.

Oof, that’s a rather steep increase.

Insanity.

Why does this need to be cost plus in the first place? What cutting edge technology development is happening here that’s impossible to budget for correctly? Absolute incompetence.