However, the GAO also said "NASA needs to do a better job in preparing and documenting the cost analysis and methodologies used in its decision-making process."
Because of those shortcomings, the GAO said it wasn't fully able to verify the facts NASA used to make its decision to move shuttle overhaul work from a Boeing facility in Palmdale, Calif., to the United Space Alliance (USA)-managed Orbiter Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center.
Based on the GAO's research of NASA's numbers, the annual cost savings range from $16 million to $70 million, with several estimates agreeing on a savings of about $30 million.
The comments came in a letter from GAO officials to U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who requested the review in response to NASA's policy change last year.
"We're very disappointed that our Palmdale facility in California will not be doing this work," David Sandretti, a spokesman for Sen. Boxer in Washington, D.C., said Thursday. "Sen. Boxer felt from the start that the cost savings that NASA was claiming were not immediately apparent."
The location of the inspection, overhaul and upgrade work has been a sore spot between California and Florida lawmakers and their constituencies since the beginning of the shuttle program more than 20 years ago.
Each of NASA's approximately $2 billion spaceplanes were manufactured and assembled in Palmdale and then flown atop a NASA 747 jumbo jet to Florida to go into operational service.
About every three years, or every five to eight spaceflights, each of the shuttles must be pulled out of service for a period of extensive work. In the past that has meant flying the shuttle back to California.
Critics of doing the work in California have long argued it's more expensive to do the work there because of the higher paid staff and increased cost of doing business there than as compared to doing the same work on Florida's East Coast.
What's more, there's the inherent risk of ferrying the shuttle cross country, and once the shuttles are returned to Florida -- local managers have privately complained -- the vehicles are in no shape to return to duty.
Because of scheduling issues, work set for California was often moved to Florida anyway, and stories abound at KSC about how workers through the years have found various forms of garbage -- including a complete Oreo cookie -- inside the shuttle's various compartments.
Critics of the move to Florida cited the many years of shuttle experience available in Palmdale and stressed that it is in the nation's best interest to maintain a dual-coast capability in the event a shuttle is seriously damaged or the decision is ever made to build another shuttle.
More parochially, the policy change means a loss of jobs at Palmdale and a subsequent negative effect on the local economy. Sen. Boxer's office says the number of workers that will be lost when it is all said and done could number up to 500.
The GAO letter released Monday stated that USA will draw about 235 workers from their 1,900-member shuttle workforce, requiring the hiring of 176 new workers. Of those, about 36 might come from the existing Palmdale workforce, according to GAO research.
At KSC, where Discovery is currently undergoing its maintenance period as the first of the shuttles to have this work done in Florida under the new policy, officials were generally pleased with the GAO's stance on Thursday.
"Overall, we felt the thrust of the report was in line with our conclusions of why we moved the work here," said KSC spokesman George Diller.
As to the GAO comments that NASA needs to strengthen its ability to better determine program costs there was no disagreement as that's something the agency and it's boss, Sean O'Keefe, have been working very hard on during the past few months, he said.
"It's definitely consistent with what Mr. O'Keefe is trying to do," Diller said.
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