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Money spent vs results over time. Results excluding Boeing & subcontractor revenue. SLS was originally sold as cost effective reuse of existing SSMEs combined w

Money spent vs results over time. Results excluding Boeing & subcontractor revenue. SLS was originally sold as cost effective reuse of existing SSMEs combined with relatively simple tankage to get a cheap large booster. Against those metrics it’s a debacle, unclear if it ever will fly, especially more than once.

mjevans 4y ago
While I agree about SLS, and I'm also hopeful about SpaceX's Starship stack, I'd really like to see a successful test. They're working on it, but just imagine how much closer they could have been with even a fraction of this SLS boondoggle contributed. If NASA is supposed to be a multi-state grant to the sciences, I'd much rather they focus the funding where it will deliver results that benefit the public commons. The jobs program for obsolete and finicky space tech is a dis-service to the public and even the workers who's skills are in questionably useful specialties.
adolph 4y ago
Compared to Starliner and its move from Atlas V to Vulcan [0], SLS is a paragon of incremental success. Additionally, to be fair to SLS, many of the problems associated with the program have to do with the mobile launch platform, which was built for the previous Constellation program and required considerable refit for SLS. [1] 0. https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/nasa-will-pay-boeing-more-than-twice-as-much-as-spacex-for-crew-seats/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/nasa-will-pay-boeing... 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_Ground_Systems#Launch_Platforms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_Ground_Systems#Lau...
ramesh31 4y ago
> Against those metrics it’s a debacle, unclear if it ever will fly, especially more than once. Not to mention a national security nightmare. Imagine a world without the COTS program, where we would most likely still be waiting for whatever version of Starliner that we finally got. We would right now be reliant on Russia to return our astronauts to earth from the ISS. Can you even imagine what we’d have to give up for their safety?
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  This alternate reality could yield a good movie script. Think of American astronauts trying to hijack a Russian Soyuz docking at the station to get back to earth.

mjevans 4y ago

While I agree about SLS, and I'm also hopeful about SpaceX's Starship stack, I'd really like to see a successful test. They're working on it, but just imagine how much closer they could have been with even a fraction of this SLS boondoggle contributed. If NASA is supposed to be a multi-state grant to the sciences, I'd much rather they focus the funding where it will deliver results that benefit the public commons. The jobs program for obsolete and finicky space tech is a dis-service to the public and even the workers who's skills are in questionably useful specialties.

adolph 4y ago

Compared to Starliner and its move from Atlas V to Vulcan [0], SLS is a paragon of incremental success. Additionally, to be fair to SLS, many of the problems associated with the program have to do with the mobile launch platform, which was built for the previous Constellation program and required considerable refit for SLS. [1] 0. https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/nasa-will-pay-boeing-more-than-twice-as-much-as-spacex-for-crew-seats/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/nasa-will-pay-boeing... 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_Ground_Systems#Launch_Platforms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_Ground_Systems#Lau...

ramesh31 4y ago

> Against those metrics it’s a debacle, unclear if it ever will fly, especially more than once. Not to mention a national security nightmare. Imagine a world without the COTS program, where we would most likely still be waiting for whatever version of Starliner that we finally got. We would right now be reliant on Russia to return our astronauts to earth from the ISS. Can you even imagine what we’d have to give up for their safety?

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
This alternate reality could yield a good movie script. Think of American astronauts trying to hijack a Russian Soyuz docking at the station to get back to earth.