What the Space Shuttle Program Taught me About Project Management

I’m a bit of a space buff, and for me the NASA space shuttle program is one of the best lessons in project management that one could ever learn from.

I’m simplifying here, but the original brief was to create a reusable space plane that would replace traditional rockets, cutting the cost of space travel four-fold and even becoming partially self-sustaining by supporting commercial contracts to help cover operational costs.

At some point in the project, engineers likely told the project managers and leaders that a mostly self-propelled space plane was not technologically feasible for the time (and still isn’t). That moment was the opportunity to close the project with perhaps a few red faces, but also some positive and valuable lessons learned, and some great data for future research and development…

…instead they pushed ahead and ended up strapping a space plane to two rockets and a massive disposable fuel tank.

The end result was a fleet of space shuttles that provided great photo ops for NASA’s PR team, but also cost four times more to launch than traditional rockets and generated no commercial revenue, not to mention more tragic fatalities than every other known space mission put together. Finally, when the program was retired in 2011, the shuttles were replaced with . . . traditional space rockets.

Admittedly, I am grossly simplifying a fascinating and complex period of human science and history, and this is not to disparage the incredible work of NASA scientists and engineers who still managed to get those shuttles off the ground, in spite of the pressures and constant political interference they were working under. This does, however, show the value of listening to your subject matter experts and knowing when to cut your losses.

Most of all, it shows the value of carrying out proper feasibility studies before you green-light the next phase of a project. A project proposal not making it past its feasibility study can undoubtedly bruise some egos, but it should not be seen as a failure. On the other hand, pressing ahead with a project despite knowing it will not achieve the desired objectives is a failure in the making.