Good News for NSF’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory

If all goes as planned, $85 million in FY 1994 and FY 1995 funding will be released in the next few weeks for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). This follows approval on November 18 of two resolutions by the National Science Board (NSB) of a revised funding plan for construction, associated R&D, and commissioning of this project sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

LIGO will consist of two detectors in Hanford, Washington and Livingston Parish, Louisiana. Laser light will be sent through 4-km L-shaped tubes designed to detect changes in the beam resulting from gravitational waves. The project is jointly managed by the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The NSB action responds to a demand made by the Senate VA, HUD, Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee in July. A committee report accompanying the NSF funding bill stated, “The Committee continues to be concerned about ongoing management problems at one of the two sites for the LIGO Program, especially in light of concerns expressed by the chief financial officer of the Foundation, and directs the Foundation to provide its complete reorganization plan for LIGO with the fiscal year 1995 operating plan. In addition, the Committee directs that no fiscal year 1995 funding for LIGO shall be obligated until the new management plan has been approved by the National Science Board. The Committee directs the Foundation to submit a progress report and updated cost estimates for LIGO by November 15, 1994" (see FYI #112.)

The board authorized amendments to the CalTech Cooperative Agreement increasing LIGO spending to $365.4 million. This figure includes $212 million previously approved for construction and associated R&D. The first amendment authorizes an additional $84.7 million for construction and R&D. This increase consists of $36.6 million because the construction schedule is stretched out from four to seven years, $16 million for recommended additional staff, $9 million for extra contingency funding, and $23.1 million in additional funding over the project’s projected base cost (mostly for more sophisticated detectors.) A second amendment approves, for the first time, $68.7 million for commissioning and operations from FY 1997 to 2001.

The new construction cost figures and staffing levels result from an intensive project review by a committee of scientific and engineering experts. A project team now directed by Barry Barish has, according to NSF, created “a new organizational structure aimed at more specific assignments of responsibility through appropriate delegation, strengthening the project’s system of checks and balances, and increasing accountability.” This new team has met all project milestones.

NSF is now awaiting approval of the restructured LIGO plan by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Rep. Louis Stokes (D-OH), chairs of the VA, HUD, appropriations subcommittees. With their approval, $35 million held back in FY 1994 funding, and $50 million in FY 1995 funding, will be released.