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Title    NASA Administrator Ponders the Fate of SLS in Interview
Date    Sunday July 08 2018, @03:02AM
Author    martyb
Topic   
from the SLS-plans-are-"up-in-the-air"? dept.
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/07/08/0142243

takyon writes:

Rocket Report: Japanese rocket blows up, NASA chief ponders purpose of SLS (and other news)

NASA Administrator ponders what to do with the SLS rocket. During a Q&A with Politico, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine was asked about how the space agency views commercial launch vehicles. His response: "As we move forward, we're going to have to maybe rethink... at what point do we start taking advantage of those commercial capabilities to the extent that they drive down cost, give us more capability, and what do we do with SLS?... We're not there yet, but certainly there's a horizon here. Is it 10 years? I don't know what the answer is, but what we can't do in my view is give up our government capability, our national capability, when we don't have an alternative."

Speaking of timelines ... NASA doesn't exactly have the "national capability" of the SLS rocket yet in the heavy-lift class, either. We've heard rumors of a slip to 2021 for the first launch date, in which case Blue Origin's New Glenn has a fighting chance to fly first, as SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket has already done.

Blue Origin targets Moon landing by 2023. Blue Origin's business development director, A.C. Charania, said at a conference that the company's Blue Moon program is "our first step to developing a lunar landing capability for the country, for other customers internationally, to be able to land multi metric tons on the lunar surface." The company has not said what role its large orbital rocket under development, New Glenn, would play in a mission to the Moon.

BFR is a privately funded next-generation reusable launch vehicle and spacecraft system developed by SpaceX. It was announced by Elon Musk in September 2017.[8][9] The overall space vehicle architecture includes both launch vehicles and spacecraft that are intended to completely replace all of SpaceX's existing space hardware by the early 2020s as well as ground infrastructure for rapid launch and relaunch, and zero-gravity propellant transfer technology to be deployed in low Earth orbit (LEO). The large payload to Earth orbit of up to 150,000 kg (330,000 lb) makes BFR a super heavy-lift launch vehicle. Manufacture of the first upper stage/spacecraft prototype began by March 2018, and the ship is projected to begin testing in early 2019.[5]

Related: First SLS Mission Will be Unmanned
After the Falcon Heavy Launch, Time to Defund the Space Launch System?
President Trump Praises Falcon Heavy, Diminishes NASA's SLS Effort
SpaceX BFR vs. ULA Vulcan Showdown in the 2020s
NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station
NASA Could Scale Down First Manned Flight of the SLS
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine Serious About Returning to the Moon
Jeff Bezos Details Moon Settlement Ambitions in Interview
This Week in Space Pessimism: SLS, Mars, and Lunar Gateway

Original Submission

Links
  1. "takyon" - https://soylentnews.org/~takyon/
  2. "Rocket Report: Japanese rocket blows up, NASA chief ponders purpose of SLS" - https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/07/rocket-report-virgin-launch-license-europe-and-the-space-force-sls-purpose/
  3. "Q&A with Politico" - https://www.politico.com/live-events/2018/06/27/the-new-space-age-a-conversation-with-nasa-administrator-jim-bridenstine-640331
  4. "said at a conference" - https://www.geekwire.com/2018/blue-origin-targets-moon-landing-2023-early-step-toward-lunar-settlement/
  5. "BFR" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BFR_(rocket)
  6. "First SLS Mission Will be Unmanned" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/05/13/2318235
  7. "After the Falcon Heavy Launch, Time to Defund the Space Launch System?" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/02/10/0232205
  8. "President Trump Praises Falcon Heavy, Diminishes NASA's SLS Effort" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/03/09/0256227
  9. "SpaceX BFR vs. ULA Vulcan Showdown in the 2020s" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/03/19/2145213
  10. "NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/03/28/0829212
  11. "NASA Could Scale Down First Manned Flight of the SLS" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/04/14/0042225
  12. "NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine Serious About Returning to the Moon" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/05/10/0248227
  13. "Jeff Bezos Details Moon Settlement Ambitions in Interview" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/05/28/1443236
  14. "This Week in Space Pessimism: SLS, Mars, and Lunar Gateway" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/06/20/2259215
  15. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=27765
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