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posted by martyb on Saturday February 29 2020, @01:38AM   Printer-friendly
from the Which-will-first-orbit-the-Earth?-NASA-SLS-or-SpaceX-Starship? dept.

SLS debut slips to April 2021, KSC teams working through launch sims

Preparations continue at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first launch of the Space Launch System, or SLS rocket – NASA's gigantic rocket the agency hopes to use to launch humans to the lunar surface and to the commercial-rocket constructed Lunar Gateway.

But while Kennedy prepares for the rocket's arrival and first mission, various NASA centers are now actively planning for a No Earlier Than 18 April 2021 launch for the rocket's debut.

[...] The 20 February 2020 NASA press release regarding the KSC launch team's performance of Artemis 1 countdown and launch simulations was the first NASA release to publicly confirm SLS will not fly this year, noting "NASA is preparing for the first uncrewed flight test next year of the agency's powerful new rocket and spacecraft in development for the Artemis lunar exploration program."

The previous NASA-provided No Earlier Than (NET) November 2020 launch date of Artemis 1 was always viewed as political in nature and not an accurate reflection of the rocket's readiness.

See also: Cruz skeptical about prospects for NASA appropriations or other legislation


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 29 2020, @06:08PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 29 2020, @06:08PM (#964633) Journal
    And past performance doesn't matter when the next cost-plus contract is doled out.

    Keep in mind the other side of these contracts - changing requirements. NASA is notorious (as are most US government organizations that rely on cost-plus) for changing its requirements on the fly without regard for cost or utility. For example, consider the question - what is the SLS going to be used for? There have been a host of sloppy, hand-waved ideas like Lunar Gateway, lunar settlement, Martian manned exploration, a few large space probes (due to spatial requirements or large propellant needs), etc. But no solid, well-funded mission exists to use that rocket. So what happens if Boeing should happen to deliver a working SLS rocket? Well, we get to spend more just to get that rocket to work with any mission concepts that survive that long. And I wouldn't be surprised if none of the present ideas make it. Even in 2021, it's going to be a different election cycle with possibly a different president.