mr. powner has noted. moved the ground system to a different set of architectures that are more commercial, off the shelf, modern network protocalls. so a lot of technical things were done to stack up that new estimate and i have a strong confidence in it. >> okay. mr. watkins, your testimony was optimistic about the go-czar program. it sounds like it's on track, but it's the instruments that still have a ways to go in developing them and integrating them. we know that that has frequently been a stage at which things can go wrong. what confidence do you have that the instruments included like the lightening mapper will succeed and it will be on time and on budget? >> i think one of the things that is critical is that noaa and nasa got started very early on with the instrument developme developments. and instruments, when you look across satellite programs, are usually the place you begin to run into problems. so i think the fact that the instrument development was early, the fact they have developed instru

mr. powner. i thank the whole panel for your testimony. reminding members the committee rules limit questions to five minutes each. ordinarily the chair would open the first round of questions, but i'm going to defer to full committee chair mr. hall to begin the first round of questions. mr. hall, you're recognized for five minutes. >> mr. chairman, thank you. i know the senate proposed i think the senate science commerce proposed some support language to transfer funding for weather satellite acquisition from noaa to nasa. and i'm as bad as mr. miller about not knowing about what a satellite might cost. i remember one time when i left the texas judge's seat in my little hometown to go to austin to take on the job as the state senator. our kids had to change schools. and my wife and i both assured them we would help them with their school work. the first week they studied how much was the national debt. and it got my little kid in trouble because he gave them the answer i gave him, a hell of a lot. he said that wasn't what the teacher was

mr. powner, maybe you can -- what is your finding? >> the gap is $1.7 billion. it's from $14.6, that was the cost when you reconciled the various cost estimates. but the program was capped at $12 pn .9. and i think their approach, as we understand it, there's two primary ways in which they are going to address the gap. one is they found a more efficient way to operate and maintain the satellites, which dr. sullivan referred to, and then also too there's this savings through this arrangement with the free fliers where the climate sensors are included, but they will fly them outside the program. there's still details in how that tallies up. that's how i made the comments. >> okay. dr. sullivan s that an accurate assessment? >> it is, sir. >> thank you it very much. i recognize for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. powner, one thing that really stuck out about your oral testimony here was the 48% confidence level that nasa will meet the 2015 launch date. is that the biggest threat is not making that launch date? >> yeah. so a couple things. we did some

mr. powner, do you have any views on this matter? >> clearly, we'd like to see those plans documented. a couple thoughts here though. the one thing that noaa and nasa control is keeping gpps launch date where it currently is, you need to keep that on track. if that slips, the gap becomes greater. the other thing is with npp over the next year as you look at calibration activities, there might be a greater indication on how long npp will last. the key is to try to get it to last as long as you can and that picture should become clearer when it goes through validation. you need to keep that on track. >> i would just add we completely agree with that. i thought it was directed towards other comments. >> mr. powner, do you have a view on the current gpp program manager and team that you would be willing to share? >> yeah, i think there's strong program management there. we have seen many managers over the years testifying before this committee, and clearly when you look at where the program is now, it's much better positioned than where it's been in the past. and when you look at the aggre

mr. powner pointed out that

mr. david a. powner, the director of information technology management issues for the gao. and i thank you all for being here. as our witnesses should know, spoken testimony is limited to five minutes each, after which members of the committee have five minutes each to ask questions. your written testimony would be included in the record of the hearing. because of the importance and the complexity of the issues before us today, i will allow you to go over five minutes if you need to, if you can, make it within five minutes, please do so. i'm very proud memphis colleagues for keeping theirs under five minutes. i was slightly over, i think. is the practices of the subcommittee on investigations and oversight to receive testimony under oath. and we will use that practice today as well. do any of you have an objection to taking an oath? okay. let the record reflect that the witnesses were all willing to take the oath by saying no and shaking their head from side to side, indicating such also. you also may be represented by counsel. do any of you have counsel here today? all thr