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It is not the main point of this article:
NASA's Artemis moon program facing rising costs and delays
but I note something interesting. The specific cost of each SLS launch for at least the first four launches.
NASA's Artemis moon program is estimated to cost nearly $93 billion through 2025, NASA's Office of Inspector General reported Monday. The first four flights of the program's giant SLS booster and Orion crew capsule will run in the neighborhood of $4.1 billion each, the OIG says.
Here is the cost brokedown:
Breaking that down, The OIG said a single SLS rocket will cost about $2.2 billion to produce, including two solid-fuel boosters, four RS-25 shuttle-heritage first stage engines, the upper stage and other equipment.
Orion capsules, the report said, cost about about $1 billion to build, plus another $300 million for its service module, provided by the European Space Agency. Ground systems will cost another $568 million per year.
"The $4.1 billion total cost represents production of the rocket and the operations needed to launch the SLS/Orion system including materials, labor, facilities and overhead," the OIG said. It does not include money spent on prior development, a docking system and other planned upgrades.
Other wonderful SLS news:
The second in an ongoing series of audits examining the Artemis program concludes that the first unpiloted launch of a Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule on a flight beyond the moon and back will slip into the summer 2022 timeframe.
The program's second flight, a piloted flight around the moon, will slip into 2024 while the first moon landing mission likely will not get off the ground until 2026, according to the OIG.
And, of course, SLS is all expendable. Except for those very expensive shuttle engines, which are reusable, but put onto an expendable launcher.
The only thing in SLS that gets reused is the ability to keep coming back and asking for more money.
If they can get the first moon landing delayed until, say 2027, think of how much more money they could get for that additional year of delay.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday November 16 2021, @06:45PM (4 children)
Factor in the development costs, plug in a number of launches, and that $4.1 billion per launch number goes up even higher.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 16 2021, @07:48PM (3 children)
How much will it cost if it never gets off the ground?
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Waterboard Bannon.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday November 16 2021, @08:00PM
Infinity if you divide by zero, or no less than $46 billion if it all vanished in a puff of smoke instantly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System#Budget [wikipedia.org]
Total: 2011–2021 = $23 billion (2021 dollars)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(spacecraft)#Funding_history_and_planning [wikipedia.org]
Total: 2006–2021 = $22.88 billion (2020 dollars)
Every additional year could be another $4 billion, and even if it was cancelled there would be costs associated with shutting it down.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday November 16 2021, @10:09PM (1 child)
Can the SLS engines be modified to burn $20 bills?
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 3, Informative) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday November 17 2021, @04:53PM
You get much better delta-v from $100 bills.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 16 2021, @07:49PM (1 child)
In the future you will need $4.1 billion to purchase a tall caramel non-fat latte.
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If Bezos gets his way, in the future everybody will be a space explorer for fifteen minutes.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 16 2021, @09:41PM
(Score: 2) by turgid on Tuesday November 16 2021, @09:58PM (6 children)
I think we live in interesting times, and we are witnessing the end of the old way of doing things in the space industry. The ultra-conservative days of the past are gone. No longer can lumbering behemoths of corporations rely on decades of lush funding to make baby steps.
In the early days, when the technology was brand new, this may have been necessary. Decades have now passed, technology has moved on, and so has engineering process.
That which was once cutting-edge research is heading towards commoditisation. Remember liquid nitrogen cooled supercomputers with 128MB RAM? What does your mobile phone have?
Something similar is happening with access to Earth Orbit and possibly the Moon soon after.
This is exciting.
The NASAs of this world need to keep doing what they do best: pushing the envelope. Let the commercial people do the regular stuff. The medals have been won. Move on.
Remember "Saturn by 1970?"
Come on NASA, you can do it. You went to the Moon in the 1960s.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday November 16 2021, @10:13PM (4 children)
I think the real issue is what I would call "corruption" in congress. Or at best "pork".
Senators and others manipulating the system to make it deliberately inefficient. With projects never meant to get done. Or at best, not get done very quickly or cost effectively.
The thinking is: A Jobs program for MY congressional district in my state. I don't care about any of this sciencey stuff. I just want money to flow to my backward state.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 2) by turgid on Tuesday November 16 2021, @10:24PM
Yes, actually I think you're right, with Occam's razor and all that.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday November 16 2021, @10:44PM (2 children)
The corruption is real, no need to put it into quotes. But that corrupt congress continues to win reelection. The real issue is a little closer to home.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday November 16 2021, @10:50PM (1 child)
I'm not sure what you're cryptically trying to say. If you mean voting, I vote every year.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday November 17 2021, @12:29AM
Whaddya mean "cryptically"? It's very straight up and obvious what I am saying. 98% of the voters reelect the incumbent, and never drift away from the DNC/GOP... The real corruption is there, so congress can do nothing but reflect that if they want to be reelected again and again to a 40 or 50 year career.
That 4.1 billion is also fallout from the ongoing Wall Street bailouts. That money has to be spent
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 20 2021, @09:16AM
Commerce can push envelpoes too, is all about keeping competition alive while avoiding the monopoly, even the 60's advance was competing nations. is a pity that space travel not yet comoditised, I was so looking forward to a space campervan orbiting Jupiter, being the ultimate (non)nursing home with a view.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 17 2021, @12:38AM
This is a small price to pay to keep women safe from Musky incels and their cuddle puddle couch.