Disaster! NASA SLS Is FAILURE…

Disaster! NASA SLS Is FAILURE…
===
#alphatech
#techalpha
#spacex
#elonmusk
#nasa
===
Disaster! NASA SLS Is FAILURE…
While SpaceX recently celebrated a major milestone with the successful catch of the Starship booster, marking a significant step toward fully reusable rockets, the contrast couldn't be starker for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). Once seen as the flagship project to return humans to the Moon through the Artemis mission, the SLS has instead become mired in controversy and heavy criticism.
This raises a big question for NASA: What is the most suitable solution for this faltering program?
Continue, cancel, or replace with a better option like SpaceX's Starship, where will be the answer for NASA?
Let’s find out on today’s episode of Alpha Tech.
Disaster! NASA SLS Is FAILURE…
Up until now, I’ve lost count of how many articles or comments I’ve read calling for NASA’s SLS program to be canceled since the start of 2024, while this should have been a period dominated by news about lunar rocket testing in preparation for the Artemis II mission in 2025.
However, reality tends to be harsh, often leaving us stunned. All reactions from the space community, including experts, reveal that NASA’s SLS is losing a lot of time and taxpayer money without yielding any significant results. The Inspector General of NASA has estimated that the program has burned through $23.8 billion so far. Each launch is expected to cost at least $4 billion—four times the initial estimate. This figure far exceeds the costs in the private sector, but it can only launch about once every two years and—unlike SpaceX rockets—cannot be reused.
Disaster! NASA SLS Is FAILURE…
Everyone seems frustrated with this rocket. Beyond space enthusiasts like us, even some government agencies are turning their backs on the SLS. The Department of Defense, which collaborated with the Space Shuttle in the 1970s to gather enough funding to complete its development (leading to a series of design compromises that severely reduced its safety and utility), now sees no value in repeating that process with the SLS. In an interview, Colonel Douglas Pentecost, a senior officer in charge of missile procurement for the U.S. Space Force, said: “It’s a capability right now that we, the DoD, don’t need…We have the capability that we need at the affordability price that we have, so we’re not that interested in some partnership with NASA on the SLS system.”
===
===

[PaddyOBrien]

$24 billion dollars so far, $4 billion per launch, and can only launch every two years!!! And none of it is reusable?!?!?! And only 1 test flight to show for it!!! Wow!

[AJHyland]

The reason it can not be cancelled is that so many politicians promises and back pocket inserts are tied to the employment of constituents and high end sponsor corporations that are scamming the system for bloated contracts.

[ghost]

Imagine if NASA made cars.
They would build ONE; then after it gets sold, they would order the raw materials to build another ONE.
Meanwhile, car manufacturers who understand how factories work are pumping out a new car every few minutes.

[x]

Nasa was not about getting to space. It was about making jobs in each state to act like it was going to get to space.

[thesurvivalist.]

24 billion, a total waste! No flights!

Shame Shame Shame!

[dongeiger]

Scrap SLS and sue the companies who are going over budget on their bids. You bid on a contract you deliver or go bankrupt and get sued for the difference!

[mikeg]

$400M to ‘refurb’ 16 engines that initially cost $40M each….only to throw them away as part of the $4B per launch cost….government incompetence and inefficiency at its finest

[chriswhite]

A single engine costing as much as a whole goddamn rocket is absolutely BAFFLING.

[GraphixJunkie]

The second ANY project hits double the original cost estimates, the project should be immediately put on hold pending an audit to determine if there is fraud or incompetence. Then an evaluation of if the project is even worth continuing. If you've hit a 7x in cost overruns, people should be going to jail.

[NedskiYT]

Cancel SLS.
PAY hourly employees a few years salary.
Pay contracting companies a minimal percentage.
Pay investors nothing.

[timothylewissr.]

Use sls to get the gateway to the moon orbit. Use starship to deliver the landing vehicle. Return trips could be to the ISS or VAST. Dragon can return them. Ditch the capsule return, use dragon. SLS is useful in lunar projects for mass, due to fuel issues with starship. This will gradually change. Use the pieces more strategically.

[ruthlemler]

I think all of this is about to change.

[HDnatureTV]

Great News - New head of NASA might be Jared Isaacman who flew 2 private SpaceX missions! Say goodbye to the losing rocket companies.

[ghost]

SpaceX misses deadlines by months, NASA misses deadlines by decades.

[daddy]

It'll be fascinating to see how D.O.G.E. addresses these cost concerns, and if D.O.G.E can make NASA complete it mission effectively and efficiently.

[bill]

It must be nearly EMBARRASSING to work for NASA. But employees must just figure that they should grab every dollar they can before the GRAVY TRAIN ends.

[CruentusV]

there should be no frustration or surprise in the realization that boeing entered into a contract with NASA that it had no intention of honoring in a timely, economic, or efficient manner. it's not entirely boeing's fault, either. if the contract was intended to foster commercial competition, the milestones would have been more concrete, the penalties would have been more arduous, there would have been a drop dead time limit, and repeated failures and unkept promises would have consequences such as the inability to submit future contract bids for quite a few years. NASA and US politicians (elected and appointed) entered into this agreement and maintain this contract solely for some sort of quid pro quo. an investigation into such activities need to be made and influence peddling needs to be punished...

[johnrday]

NASA is a great institution involved in many great scientific missions - both active current missions and future planned missions being planned and in the works. But NASA management has not been coming close to controlling budgets and timelines ! It needs to change or be changed !

[stephensfarms]

It’s time for StarShip to fly more. Go SpaceX ‼️‼️‼️‼️

[ATLBraves]

This is definitely a way to maintain contractor jobs and NASA jobs. It’s clear with the delays that the project isn’t being taken seriously. This thing was suppose to initially launch in 2016. This is probably the largest runaway scope project in human history. Too many companies want to extend contracts using government/taxpayer money with nothing to show for it other than the MIC companies lining their pockets.