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posted by chromas on Tuesday April 02 2019, @06:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the bang...zoom...straight...to-the-moon dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

NASA chief says a Falcon Heavy rocket could fly humans to the Moon

[...] Until now, it was thought that only NASA's Space Launch System could directly inject the Orion spacecraft into a lunar orbit, which made it the preferred option for getting astronauts to the Moon for any potential landing by 2024. However, [NASA Administrator Jim] Bridenstine said there was another option: a Falcon Heavy rocket with an Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage built by United Launch Alliance.

[...] This plan has the ability to put humans on the Moon by 2024, Bridenstine said. He then emphasized—twice—that NASA's chief of human spaceflight, William Gerstenmaier, has yet to bless this approach due to a number of technical details. His reservations include the challenge of integrating the Falcon Heavy rocket in a horizontal position and then loading Orion with fuel in a vertical configuration on the launchpad. The Falcon Heavy would also require a larger payload fairing than it normally flies with. This would place uncertain stress on the rocket's side-mounted boosters.

"It would require time [and] cost, and there is risk involved," Bridenstine said. "But guess what—if we're going to land boots on the Moon in 2024, we have time, and we have the ability to accept some risk and make some modifications. All of that is on the table. There is nothing sacred here that is off the table. And that is a potential capability that could help us land boots on the Moon in 2024."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 02 2019, @11:42AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 02 2019, @11:42AM (#823558)

    They can no longer justify throwing money at a system that may never be finished.

    Since NASA doesn't run rocket building facilities, I hope you don't blame them for the neverending systems.

  • (Score: 2) by bradley13 on Tuesday April 02 2019, @12:25PM

    by bradley13 (3053) on Tuesday April 02 2019, @12:25PM (#823574) Homepage Journal

    "Since NASA doesn't run rocket building facilities, I hope you don't blame them for the neverending systems."

    Blame NASA? Well, not exactly. Congress hands NASA the SLS money, and tells them how to spend it. I used to work in USAF procurement, and I know exactly how this goes down: you want your program to get funding approval, it is understood that subcontracts must be issued in as many Congressional districts as possible. The prime contractor takes care of this, and anyway, they're the ones with the lobbyists in direct contact with Congress. Your role as a procurement bureaucrat is to make sure that all the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed. On a good day, your project will actually make real progress. That's great and all, but never forget that actual progress is not important to either the prime contractor or to Congress.

    Is that NASA's fault? Not really. It's a fundamental flaw in a system where politicians get to spend other people's money with virtually no constraints. I also don't know what the solution is. The only thing I can suggest is getting the purse strings out of the politicians' hands. Maybe you could let the people who pay taxes should - in proportion to their tax bill - vote on major government spending programs? Dunno, but the current system is clearly broken...

    --
    Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.