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200 delayed until April 2009 and the first replacement is pushed to 2012, NOAA and Defense Department officials testified before the House of Representatives science committee in November. "It is now clear that almost from the outset decisions were made with too little analysis of the technical challenges involved," said committee chairman Represen- tative Sherwood Boehlert of New York at the hearing. Northrop-Grumman explained that most of the delays and cost growth resulted from problems with the orbiters' sensors. One in par- ticular concerned an infrared camera dubbed VIIRS, which is supposed to collect images of clouds and probe sea-surface temperatures. North- rop-Grumman now says that it assumed VIIRS development would be simpler than it turned out to be because aspects of VIIRS were based on existing instruments. Both the government and contractors failed to recognize prob- lems in time to fix them, stated David Powner of the Government Ac- countability Office at the hearing. Powner also noted that the satellite program's executive leadership issued few major decisions, often opting instead to conduct further analysis and review. To get the program back on track, NOAA, the DOD and NASA hired a new joint program manager. Moreover, Raytheon, the subcon- tractor building VIIRS, replaced the entire team working on the instru- ment, and Northrup-Grumman has increased oversight of its subcon- tractors. To save costs and time, NOAA administrator Conrad C. Lau- tenbacher said the program might eliminate some sensors from the orbiters. Still, an independent review conducted by the Aerospace Cor- poration suggests any changes will still leave it at least $1 billion over budget. The House science committee also worries that the joint agency nature of the program hampers problem solving. Workarounds are possible, if not ideal. The military satellites can probably survive well beyond 2012, although they do not provide all the data NOAA needs for its weather-forecasting models. NASA re- search satellites or long-duration high-altitude flights might also help.