NASA is working to answer those questions -- but the Obama team simply could check the public record. In its 2009 budget released this year, the agency named eight major projects that have significantly exceeded budget or deadline, including the Glory mission.
NASA finds it hard to estimate operational costs as well. For example, the agency expects to retire the space shuttle in 2010 but has not told Congress how much that will cost in 2011 and beyond. A key reason: The agency still doesn't know.
On the campaign trail, Obama pledged to increase NASA's roughly $17-billion budget by $2 billion -- but that was before the economic downturn turned into a meltdown.
With the budget deficit ballooning, a new administration might be reluctant to give more money to an agency with a history of managing it poorly.
Griffin and NASA didn't help their case when the agency announced this month that its Mars rover mission would be delayed two years and cost an additional $400 million. That boosted the total cost of the Mars Science Laboratory to about $2.3 billion.
One early estimate for the car-sized rover, which would study whether Mars could support life, was $650 million, Stern said.
Griffin said NASA shouldn't be evaluated by how well it estimated the cost of projects.
"If we are to judge the worth of our work by our ability to estimate, then that is a standard I am not ready to apply or to accept," Griffin said.
"We are always going to be on [GAO's] high-risk list," he said.
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