@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
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The #costs were much higher than expected: Each flight cost an estimated $500 million 💰, which was similar to the cost of #Apollo-era launches. Carrying a one-pound payload proved to be about 10 times more expensive than the optimistic forecasts had predicted https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/3095318/the-lost-decades-of-government-run-space-travel/
"It’s obvious that the #SpaceShuttle is just a contrivance to keep #NASA alive, and that no real need for the space shuttle was determined before the massive construction program was initiated" #JimmyCarter https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/12/a-cold-war-mystery-why-did-jimmy-carter-save-the-space-shuttle
"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/
📆 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 #SpaceX https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/04/nasa-chief-says-a-falcon-heavy-rocket-could-fly-humans-to-the-moon/
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
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/
#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/
