NASA finally admits SLS is unaffordable

[大汉奸柳传志]

After Spending Billions of Dollars on SLS, NASA Admits Its Moon Rocket Is 'Unaffordable'​

NASA has come under heat for the increasing cost of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which space agency officials have finally admitted to being unsustainable and unaffordable, a new report revealed.


The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on Thursday that heavily criticized NASA for its lack of transparency regarding the true cost of the SLS program, which has already gone $6 billion over budget.

Related Content​

0:07 / 1:29


Orion's Heat Shield Remains 'Biggest Open Issue' Ahead of NASA's Artemis 2 Mission
NASA Showcases Orion Spacecraft Trio for Future Crewed Artemis Moon Missions
The SLS rocket launched on November 16, 2022 for the Artemis 1 mission, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back. The 5.75-million-pound rocket is essential to NASA’s Moon program, with plans to launch Artemis 2 in late 2024 followed by the first crewed landing on the lunar surface as early as 2025 and another one tentatively set for 2028.

“NASA does not plan to measure production costs to monitor the affordability of its most powerful rocket, SLS,” GAO’s report read. “After SLS’ first launch...NASA plans to spend billions of dollars to continue producing multiple SLS components.” Those components include core stages and RS-25 engines currently being built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. Each rocket launch requires four engines and two boosters; one RS-25 engine currently costs around $100 million to manufacture.


In 2014, GAO had recommended that NASA establish cost and schedule baselines for the Artemis program. Instead, the space agency “created a rolling 5-year estimate of production and operations costs to ensure that the costs fit within NASA’s overall budget,” GAO wrote in its report. That initial estimate, however, does not reflect the cost of the SLS program over time. As a result, ongoing production and other costs that followed the launch of Artemis 1 are not monitored.


NASA’s massive Moon rocket has been a budgeting nightmare. The projected cost of each SLS rocket has gone over budget by $144 million through Artemis 4, increasing the overall cost of a single Artemis launch to at least $4.2 billion, according to a report released in May by the office of NASA’s inspector general.


NASA officials that spoke to GAO acknowledged that at current cost levels, the SLS program is “unaffordable,” and “unsustainable and exceeds what NASA officials believe will be available for its Artemis missions.”

In an effort to decrease the cost of the SLS program over time, the space agency is working to implement these strategies: stabilizing the flight schedule, achieving learning curve efficiencies, encouraging innovation, and adjusting acquisition strategies to reduce cost risk.

The report shows skepticism over NASA’s game plan moving forward. “NASA, however, has not yet identified specific program-level cost saving goals which it hopes to achieve,” GAO wrote in its report. “NASA has made some progress toward implementing these strategies, but it is too early to fully evaluate their effect on cost.”

NASA is also considering other options, like operating SLS under a launch service model whereby the space agency would purchase future launches and payload capabilities from a contractor who would own, operate, and integrate the rocket, according to the report.

There is a lot riding on the SLS rocket and NASA’s planned return to the Moon, therefore the space agency is highly motivated to make it work. The future of its launch vehicle, however, might need to take a different trajectory in order to still be able to deliver the Orion capsule on its way to the Moon.

NASA spent billions, now says SLS moon rocket is unaffordable

A new report accuses the space agency of a lack of transparency regarding the cost of its SLS program.

gizmodo.com

NASA finally admits what everyone already knows: SLS is unaffordable

"At current cost levels the SLS program is unsustainable."

arstechnica.com

 

[DF41]

After Spending Billions of Dollars on SLS, NASA Admits Its Moon Rocket Is 'Unaffordable'​

NASA has come under heat for the increasing cost of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which space agency officials have finally admitted to being unsustainable and unaffordable, a new report revealed.


The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on Thursday that heavily criticized NASA for its lack of transparency regarding the true cost of the SLS program, which has already gone $6 billion over budget.

Related Content​

0:07 / 1:29


Orion's Heat Shield Remains 'Biggest Open Issue' Ahead of NASA's Artemis 2 Mission
NASA Showcases Orion Spacecraft Trio for Future Crewed Artemis Moon Missions
The SLS rocket launched on November 16, 2022 for the Artemis 1 mission, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back. The 5.75-million-pound rocket is essential to NASA’s Moon program, with plans to launch Artemis 2 in late 2024 followed by the first crewed landing on the lunar surface as early as 2025 and another one tentatively set for 2028.

“NASA does not plan to measure production costs to monitor the affordability of its most powerful rocket, SLS,” GAO’s report read. “After SLS’ first launch...NASA plans to spend billions of dollars to continue producing multiple SLS components.” Those components include core stages and RS-25 engines currently being built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. Each rocket launch requires four engines and two boosters; one RS-25 engine currently costs around $100 million to manufacture.


In 2014, GAO had recommended that NASA establish cost and schedule baselines for the Artemis program. Instead, the space agency “created a rolling 5-year estimate of production and operations costs to ensure that the costs fit within NASA’s overall budget,” GAO wrote in its report. That initial estimate, however, does not reflect the cost of the SLS program over time. As a result, ongoing production and other costs that followed the launch of Artemis 1 are not monitored.


NASA’s massive Moon rocket has been a budgeting nightmare. The projected cost of each SLS rocket has gone over budget by $144 million through Artemis 4, increasing the overall cost of a single Artemis launch to at least $4.2 billion, according to a report released in May by the office of NASA’s inspector general.


NASA officials that spoke to GAO acknowledged that at current cost levels, the SLS program is “unaffordable,” and “unsustainable and exceeds what NASA officials believe will be available for its Artemis missions.”

In an effort to decrease the cost of the SLS program over time, the space agency is working to implement these strategies: stabilizing the flight schedule, achieving learning curve efficiencies, encouraging innovation, and adjusting acquisition strategies to reduce cost risk.

The report shows skepticism over NASA’s game plan moving forward. “NASA, however, has not yet identified specific program-level cost saving goals which it hopes to achieve,” GAO wrote in its report. “NASA has made some progress toward implementing these strategies, but it is too early to fully evaluate their effect on cost.”

NASA is also considering other options, like operating SLS under a launch service model whereby the space agency would purchase future launches and payload capabilities from a contractor who would own, operate, and integrate the rocket, according to the report.

There is a lot riding on the SLS rocket and NASA’s planned return to the Moon, therefore the space agency is highly motivated to make it work. The future of its launch vehicle, however, might need to take a different trajectory in order to still be able to deliver the Orion capsule on its way to the Moon.

NASA spent billions, now says SLS moon rocket is unaffordable

A new report accuses the space agency of a lack of transparency regarding the cost of its SLS program.

gizmodo.com

NASA finally admits what everyone already knows: SLS is unaffordable

"At current cost levels the SLS program is unsustainable."

arstechnica.com

 

[Nan Yang]

SLS intension was to save Space Shuttle jobs after the Space Shuttle was retired. It was never about designing a launch vehicle for the future.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

SLS intension was to save Space Shuttle jobs after the Space Shuttle was retired. It was never about designing a launch vehicle for the future.

If that was the case why did NASA hire companies like SpaceX and Boeing to build spacecraft???

Sep 16, 2014

NASA picked the two private spacecraft to replace the Space Shuttle

The SpaceX Dragon and Boeing CST-100 will being ferrying astronauts to the space station in 2017.

www.vox.com

NASA picked the two private spacecraft to replace the Space Shuttle​

In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, NASA officials announced that both the SpaceX Dragon and Boeing CST-100 will move forward as part of the Commercial Crew Program. If successful, they will be the first private spacecraft to put humans in orbit.

 

[Nan Yang]

Quote
In response, the U.S. Senate, led by Senators from Texas and Florida, passed the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which rejected the full cancellation of Constellation by retaining the Orion crew vehicle and the heavy-lift rocket program, now called the Space Launch System. It directed NASA to leverage existing Shuttle and Constellation contracts to create the SLS, ensuring the continuation of extant funding streams and thousands of jobs.

It is not too much of a simplification to say that the SLS is the modern implementation of the Space Shuttle workforce.

End Quote

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Quote
In response, the U.S. Senate, led by Senators from Texas and Florida, passed the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which rejected the full cancellation of Constellation by retaining the Orion crew vehicle and the heavy-lift rocket program, now called the Space Launch System. It directed NASA to leverage existing Shuttle and Constellation contracts to create the SLS, ensuring the continuation of extant funding streams and thousands of jobs.

It is not too much of a simplification to say that the SLS is the modern implementation of the Space Shuttle workforce.

End Quote

Well they announced the Constellation project well before the Space Shuttle retirement (2011). But the Constellation and SLS never were meant to replace the shuttle as a way of getting to low earth orbit or visit the ISS. These craft were to propel people beyond low earth orbit. They wanted private companies to handle LEO.

Back then SpaceX hadn't even announced its Mars craft. So the SLS was the only option to go beyond LEO.

However after all the massive strides SpaceX has made with reusability many are people thinking the SLS is not a great idea anymore.