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#NASA’s Office of Inspector General issued a devastating 👎 audit 🔍 of the program, which found that delays to the #SLS booster and engine contracts have resulted in an approximately $6 billion 💰💰💰💰💰💰 cost-overrun. The report further criticizes the use of #CostPlus contracts, a fee structure by which essentially all of the risk is taken on by the government. https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/13/congress-prepares-to-continue-throwing-money-at-nasas-space-launch-system/
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The #SLS and #Orion spacecraft projects are of such a scale that they spend money in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, creating #parochial interest in nearly every congressional district. It sounds like a straightforward argument: cancel the slow and outdated SLS and direct its $2.6 billion 💰 per year into novel public-private partnerships like #SpaceX’s #Starshiphttps://www.planetary.org/articles/why-we-have-the-sls
#SLS is a boondoggle. The conception and execution of the project has been a near-perfect example of #PorkBarrel politics. Pork barrels are lousy ways to advance technology. Just a fraction of the $23bn 💰 spent on the #SLS could make an enormous difference. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/08/28/nasas-newest-rocket-is-a-colossal-waste-of-money
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#Presidents support #NASA and do what NASA says. We could have orbiters around every planet 🪐 in the #SolarSystem for a fraction 📊 of the cost of #Artemis. But nobody gave us that option. The cost 💰 and time ⏳ spent on #SLS and #Orion have set the #SpaceProgram back 〽️ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/opinion/nasa-moon-artemis.html
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Adjusted for inflation, the cost of one launch of the #SaturnV in the 📆 1960s was around $1.5 billion 💰, which is a far cry from the $4 billion 💰💰💰💰 required for just one #SLS launch https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/32011-nasas-powerful-and-contraversial-sls-rocket-ready-to-launch
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#SLS is a boondoggle. The conception and execution of the project has been a near-perfect example of #PorkBarrel politics. Pork barrels are lousy ways to advance technology. Just a fraction of the $23bn 💰 spent on the #SLS could make an enormous difference. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/08/28/nasas-newest-rocket-is-a-colossal-waste-of-money
#Boeing’s space and defense chief exits. Boeing's #shares have lost about 41% 📉 so far this year https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeing-defense-head-ted-colbert-leave-2024-09-20/
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#Boeing is exploring a sale of #Starliner, but excludes the unit building #NASA's #SLS. The company's new #CEO said he wants Boeing "doing less and doing it better" https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeing-explores-sale-its-space-business-wsj-reports-2024-10-25/
It is not easy to turn a big #bureaucracy, and there will undoubtedly be friction and pain points. But the opportunity here is enticing: #NASA should not be competing with things that private industry is already doing better, such as launching big rockets. Rather, it should find difficult research and development projects at the edge of the possible. https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/12/how-did-the-ceo-of-an-online-payments-firm-become-the-nominee-to-lead-nasa
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The incoming Trump administration will certainly keep #NASA's goal of landing people on the Moon, but without the budgetary 💰 burden of the #SLS rocket. https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/12/trumps-nominee-to-lead-nasa-favors-a-full-embrace-of-commercial-space
Mr. #Isaacman would replace the current administrator, #BillNelsonhttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/science/jared-isaacman-trump-nasa.html
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It is not easy to turn a big #bureaucracy, and there will undoubtedly be friction and pain points. But the opportunity here is enticing: #NASA should not be competing with things that private industry is already doing better, such as launching big rockets. Rather, it should find difficult research and development projects at the edge of the possible. https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/12/how-did-the-ceo-of-an-online-payments-firm-become-the-nominee-to-lead-nasa
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Prof Logsdon* expects big changes under #Trump, Mr #Musk and Mr #Isaacman: scrapping programmes, closing NASA centres and more contracting out to #SpaceX, #BlueOrigin and other private sector firms. "There is a delicate balance between the interests of #NASA, #Congress and the #WhiteHouse."
Mr Isaacman has called the #SLS "outrageously expensive" and said that the major aerospace contractors are "incentivised to be economically #inefficient". https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn93797z2dpo
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#SpaceX has developed two heavy lift rockets in the last decade, and #BlueOrigin just launched #NewGlenn. Each of these rockets is at least partially reusable ♻️ and flies at less than one-tenth 💵 the cost of the #SLS rocket 💰 https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/boeing-has-informed-its-employees-that-nasa-may-cancel-sls-contracts
Launch costs have fallen 95% 📉 (with another massive reduction expected in the coming years) thanks to reuse, improved engineering, and increased volumes.
“In economics, we assume that resources are limited; land is limited; natural resources are limited. With #space 🌌, it allows us to change that.” https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/may/03/were-in-a-new-era-the-21st-century-space-race-takes-off
“In economics, we assume that resources are limited; land is limited; natural resources are limited. With #space 🌌, it allows us to change that.” https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/may/03/were-in-a-new-era-the-21st-century-space-race-takes-off
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📊 #ESA 🇪🇺 and its member states forked over $4.4B 💰💰💰💰 to develop #Ariane6. Customer launches are unlikely to pay back development costs any time soon.
#SpaceX has invested over $5B 💰💰💰💰💰 in #Starship 🚀 R&D to date. Starship has proven its expendable capability, and the company is focusing on achieving full #reusability ♻️.
#NASA spent a dizzying $24B 💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰 developing #SLS
https://payloadspace.com/rocket-development-costs-by-vehicle-payload-research
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When Mr Bridenstine suggested in 2019 that America could return to the Moon 🌙 using #SpaceX’s #FalconHeavy, he provoked a row with Richard #Shelby, a senator from #Alabama who was then chairman of the Senate appropriations committee. Welcoming the #SLS in 2011, Mr Shelby said that #NASA’s exploration of space, “has always been and always will be through Marshall Space Flight Centre [in #Alabama].” https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2022/08/24/nasas-space-launch-system-is-yesterdays-rocket
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It will become inevitably embarrassing if #Starship is launching dozens of times a year like #Falcon9 is, and #SLS 💰 once every two years. #FalconHeavy is the one SLS was originally in a race against, not Starship. https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/08/former-nasa-official-on-trying-to-stop-sls-there-was-just-such-visible-hostility/
📆 2019 A senior #NASA official had opened the door to NASA flying its first crewed 👩🚀 missions to the #Moon 🌙 on a #FalconHeavy rocket 🚀 built by #SpaceXhttps://arstechnica.com/science/2019/04/nasa-chief-says-a-falcon-heavy-rocket-could-fly-humans-to-the-moon/
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When Mr Bridenstine suggested in 2019 that America could return to the Moon 🌙 using #SpaceX’s #FalconHeavy, he provoked a row with Richard #Shelby, a senator from #Alabama who was then chairman of the Senate appropriations committee. Welcoming the #SLS in 2011, Mr Shelby said that #NASA’s exploration of space, “has always been and always will be through Marshall Space Flight Centre [in #Alabama].” https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2022/08/24/nasas-space-launch-system-is-yesterdays-rocket
@lori_garver “It got funded as a rocket to nowhere, and we at #NASA had to figure out something to do with it”.
The #rocket is #unsustainable by design, relying on an old and potentially quite expensive 💰 way to get to #space 🌌. Much of #SLS is a holdover from the #SpaceShuttle. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/01/09/1065143/nasa-artemis-return-to-moon
The #rocket is #unsustainable by design, relying on an old and potentially quite expensive 💰 way to get to #space 🌌. Much of #SLS is a holdover from the #SpaceShuttle. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/01/09/1065143/nasa-artemis-return-to-moon
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"Political and #aerospace interests were more than reluctant to embrace any changes which they viewed as a threat to their own hegemony."
The mainstream media doesn’t cover #SpaceExploration and #SpaceScience with the same questioning 🔍 rigor that they reserve for #politics. People writing about space exploration are mostly cheerleaders 🥳 for the cause, rather than independent observers keeping a watchful eye on how our national monies 💰 are spent. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2022/06/23/new-book-paints-bleak-picture-of-nasas-human-spaceflight-program/
The mainstream media doesn’t cover #SpaceExploration and #SpaceScience with the same questioning 🔍 rigor that they reserve for #politics. People writing about space exploration are mostly cheerleaders 🥳 for the cause, rather than independent observers keeping a watchful eye on how our national monies 💰 are spent. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2022/06/23/new-book-paints-bleak-picture-of-nasas-human-spaceflight-program/
#SpaceX’s #FalconHeavy costs well north of $100 million 💵 per launch. The #SLS about $4 billion 💰💰💰💰 per launch https://www.astronomy.com/space-exploration/by-the-numbers-the-space-launch-system-nasas-next-moon-rocket/
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@lori_garver “It got funded as a rocket to nowhere, and we at #NASA had to figure out something to do with it”.
The #rocket is #unsustainable by design, relying on an old and potentially quite expensive 💰 way to get to #space 🌌. Much of #SLS is a holdover from the #SpaceShuttle. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/01/09/1065143/nasa-artemis-return-to-moon
The #rocket is #unsustainable by design, relying on an old and potentially quite expensive 💰 way to get to #space 🌌. Much of #SLS is a holdover from the #SpaceShuttle. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/01/09/1065143/nasa-artemis-return-to-moon
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#SpaceX’s #FalconHeavy costs well north of $100 million 💵 per launch. The #SLS about $4 billion 💰💰💰💰 per launch https://www.astronomy.com/space-exploration/by-the-numbers-the-space-launch-system-nasas-next-moon-rocket/