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> SLS/Orion are close to finished I'm not well versed in this field so forgive my ignorance but I remember learning about SLS in middle school and being told t

> SLS/Orion are close to finished I'm not well versed in this field so forgive my ignorance but I remember learning about SLS in middle school and being told that it should be operational in 4-5 years. I'm about to graduate college. Do we actually know if SLS is close to finished or are we just taking their word for it?

skissane 6y ago
SLS/Orion are years behind schedule and billions over budget – but they are fully constructed and the testing before the first mission (Artemis I) has basically been completed. The last major pre-flight test milestone was the "green run" of the SLS Core Stage at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, which was completed successfully last month–after an earlier unsuccessful attempt in January. Right now, the first SLS Core Stage is on a barge on way to Kennedy Space Center, where it will be stacked in the Vehicle Assembly Building with Orion, the ESM (European Service Module), the ICPS upper stage, and the solid rocket boosters (all of which are already at Kennedy). The first flight of SLS+Orion, Artemis I, is scheduled for November – that is an uncrewed test flight in which Orion will orbit the moon and then return to Earth. It is widely expected to slip a bit, but still, if they miss November, it will happen early next year. The next mission planned after that is Artemis II, which will be a crewed Apollo 8-style mission, with astronauts orbiting the moon but not landing on it. Artemis II is scheduled for August 2023. The gap between Artemis I and Artemis II is decent-sized and hopefully gives them time to address any issues that come up, but at the same time don't be surprised if Artemis II slips by a few months too. Finally, the first lunar landing mission, Artemis III, is tentatively targeted to October 2024–but many think 2025 or 2026 are more realistic. Even if SLS/Orion are ready for that, nobody knows whether HLS Starship will be. SpaceX moves a lot faster than the SLS/Orion contractors (Boeing, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Airbus), but Starship is at a much earlier stage of development, and Starship is novel and technically challenging, whereas SLS/Orion is a technologically much more conservative design.
- ncmncm 6y ago
  You seem to be saying most of the money for the first SLS has already been spent, so they might as well shoot it. If there were anything big needing to be put into orbit right away, this one might be able to get it there. But of course as a first test, nothing valuable will be on board. Maybe they could loft a tank of LOX in a solar-powered refrigeration tank, for use by whoever needs it later. It would be silly to build and launch a second one.

skissane 6y ago

SLS/Orion are years behind schedule and billions over budget – but they are fully constructed and the testing before the first mission (Artemis I) has basically been completed. The last major pre-flight test milestone was the "green run" of the SLS Core Stage at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, which was completed successfully last month–after an earlier unsuccessful attempt in January. Right now, the first SLS Core Stage is on a barge on way to Kennedy Space Center, where it will be stacked in the Vehicle Assembly Building with Orion, the ESM (European Service Module), the ICPS upper stage, and the solid rocket boosters (all of which are already at Kennedy). The first flight of SLS+Orion, Artemis I, is scheduled for November – that is an uncrewed test flight in which Orion will orbit the moon and then return to Earth. It is widely expected to slip a bit, but still, if they miss November, it will happen early next year. The next mission planned after that is Artemis II, which will be a crewed Apollo 8-style mission, with astronauts orbiting the moon but not landing on it. Artemis II is scheduled for August 2023. The gap between Artemis I and Artemis II is decent-sized and hopefully gives them time to address any issues that come up, but at the same time don't be surprised if Artemis II slips by a few months too. Finally, the first lunar landing mission, Artemis III, is tentatively targeted to October 2024–but many think 2025 or 2026 are more realistic. Even if SLS/Orion are ready for that, nobody knows whether HLS Starship will be. SpaceX moves a lot faster than the SLS/Orion contractors (Boeing, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Airbus), but Starship is at a much earlier stage of development, and Starship is novel and technically challenging, whereas SLS/Orion is a technologically much more conservative design.

ncmncm 6y ago
You seem to be saying most of the money for the first SLS has already been spent, so they might as well shoot it. If there were anything big needing to be put into orbit right away, this one might be able to get it there. But of course as a first test, nothing valuable will be on board. Maybe they could loft a tank of LOX in a solar-powered refrigeration tank, for use by whoever needs it later. It would be silly to build and launch a second one.