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Before any funds may be obligated for implementation of a project that is projected to cost more than $250,000,000 in total project costs, the Administrator for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration shall conduct and consider an independent life-cycle cost analysis of such project and shall report the results to Congress. In developing cost accounting and reporting standards for carrying out this section, the Administrator shall, to the extent practicable and consistent with other laws, solicit the advice of expertise outside of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

In this section, the term “implementation” means all activity in the life cycle of a project after preliminary design, independent assessment of the preliminary design, and approval to proceed into implementation, including critical design, development, certification, launch, operations, disposal of assets, and, for technology programs, development, testing, analysis, and communication of the results.