We’ve had to wait a long time to see NASA’s monster Space Launch System arrive at Launch
Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The SLS is as famous for its height as it is for its delays.
NASA promised to launch the mega-rocket as early as 2017 only to postpone it again and
again.
Its maiden voyage - without a crew aboard - is now scheduled for this summer.
Although the SLS is setting the stage for America’s return to the moon, possibly by
2025, it’s unlikely to be used for long.
This may in fact be the beginning of the end for the SLS.
The SLS is very, very expensive to fly.
NASA’s independent watchdog revealed the cost of launching the SLS and Orion spacecraft
just once is $4.1 BILLION!
Inspector General Paul Martin called it “unsustainable”.
That figure, by the way, is eight times higher than NASA’s estimate of $500 million per
launch.
One of the reasons the cost is so high is that the monster rocket is not reusable.
After the SLS lifts off and burns through the fuel in the boosters and core stage, it
drops them, kind of like how a hiker drops a heavy backpack to climb the last few miles
to the top of a mountain.
So why has NASA spent so much to develop a rocket that can only be used once?
Former senator Bill Nelson, who now runs NASA as the administrator, explains that
"The program is an economic engine for America.
In 2019 alone, it supported 70,000 good-paying jobs across the country.”
Spending huge amounts of money is reminiscent of the space agency’s operations in the
60s and 70s when NASA flew 24 astronauts to the moon as part of the Apollo program.
Yet the goal at that time was different than it is now.
Back then, going to the moon was a political statement - showing off America’s technological
might during the Cold War standoff with the Soviet Union.
Today, landing on the moon is but the first step of a bigger plan.
In 2004, President Bush directed NASA to return to the moon "with the goal of living and working
there for increasingly extended periods of time."
The aim is establishing a presence on the moon and eventually, on Mars.
Whether NASA will help get us there is uncertain.
Former NASA administrator Charles Bolden predicted in a 2020 interview with Politico that:
“SLS will go away…It could go away during a Biden administration or a next Trump administration…
because at some point commercial entities are going to catch up.”
It seems they already have.
SpaceX is developing its giant Starship to take people to the moon and Mars.
Let’s make this real.
Let’s make this real!
Starship stands taller than any of the planned SLS models beginning with the initial configuration,
Block 1 Cargo, ending with the Block 2 Cargo.
It also touts the ability to send more tons to low-Earth orbit.
Specs aside, what really sets the launch vehicles apart is their price tag.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said Starship could eventually fly for just $2 million per mission.
As opposed to the SLS’ $4 billion.
Even if it costs more than $2 million it will still be far less than the SLS because Starship
is reusable.
Both the first-stage booster, the Super Heavy, and the upper-stage spacecraft Starship can
return to earth and fly again.
NASA was so impressed with SpaceX that it has chosen Starship to help with the final
leg of the journey to the moon.
A modified version of Starship will help land the first woman and next man on the lunar
surface.
The journey would begin on Earth with the SLS which lifts the Orion spacecraft carrying
astronauts on a path to the moon, helping it escape Earth’s gravity.
Then, Orion would meet up with a modified, lunar variant of Starship in lunar orbit.
The crew would transfer to Starship which would then take them
For the trip home, Starship lifts off, meets up with Orion which was left in lunar orbit,
the crew transfers over to Orion, and returns to Earth.
But what if Starship was used to go all the way to the moon, without the need for the
SLS or Orion?
Starship could launch, meet up with another starship to refuel, before journeying to the
moon.
This version of Starship is not the lunar model - it still has the heat shield and flaps
for landing back on earth.
SpaceX isn’t the only commercial company with big plans for space.
Blue Origin is getting another shot at securing a NASA moon landing contract after initially
losing out to SpaceX.
Jeff Bezos’ space venture is also reportedly trying to make its heavy-lift launch vehicle
New Glenn fully reusable like Starship.
So NASA does appear to have private options to lean on.
In many ways, the SLS is a final hurrah for NASA, paying homage to the days of the past.
It uses the main engines from the space shuttle.
Its twin solid rocket boosters are built on a foundation of knowledge and experience gained
from developing the space shuttle boosters.
Once SpaceX and others test and fly their reusable rockets successfully, the game will
change forever.
Opening up an era of space travel where trips to space could be as frequent as planes fly.
If you're passionate about space and want to learn more, my friends at Curiosity Stream
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Like this one about the historic Apollo moon landing.
There’s also a series called Space Greed that I happen to make a guest appearance in.
Astronauts have conducted about 3,000 experiments on the International Space Station
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Thanks for watching.
For Newsthink, I’m Cindy Pom.