How Much Does SLS Really Cost?

SLS is well known for being the expensive expendable rocket among todays cheap reusable vehicles. But how true is that really? Today we look at the accuracy of some of the recent cost estimates for the monster rocket and what the future has in store for it!
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Music:
Mood
Fallen Kingdom
In your Orbit

Intro (0:00)
SLS recap (0:43)
Development Costs (3:11)
Launch Costs (6:08)
Orion as a Payload (7:59)
Future Price Decreases (9:41)
Conclusion (12:31)
Outro (13:11)

[DavidWillisSLS]

I started this video last year, but only now got around to finishing it lol. Hope yall enjoy it!

Gonna try and get two more videos out before big orange hits the sky so make sure to subscribe so you dont miss those!

[sharp_ant]

I always knew that 4 billion dollars seemed a bit much for the sls

[iamarokotmanson]

In the OIG report on Orion it stated that at most you'd get a $275m cost savings from reuse, from the pressure vessel

[michalfaraday]

I´ve never read an article that would claim the SLS cost per launch was 4, 1 billion. It was always the cost of the Artemis stack. As such saying that the SLS is cheaper than we think is hardly accurate because every article I read had the correct number of 2, 2 billion. It also makes perfect sense to talk about the Artemis stack as a whole. A commercial rocket would lauch a different payload every launch. SLS on the other hand will probably only launch Orion.

It is also quite strange to talk about SLS saving money and then comparing it against a 55+ year old Saturn 5 that was made during a rush to the Moon to beat Russia. SLS program had no such urgency and no need to throw money out of the window. Being cheaper than Saturn 5 is not a win, after 55 years with access to far better technology a rocket build to achieve a similar goal SHOULD be significantly cheaper.
And let´s not forget SLS block 1 is lot less capable than Saturn 5. The real comparrison should be against alternative architectures, or commercial alternatives, which we can say with a large degree of confidence would be a lot cheaper.

The assuption that block buy of SLS would reduce the price also turned out to be false, according to the newest OIG report. 2, 5 billion is the new estimate for Block 1B.

[alrightydave]

Really well said fellow David. I remember that tweet on your thread I made a few months back about the cost breakdown of SLS on multiple missions and how cost decreases will occur with block upgrades and program maturity, but people STILL stubbornly believe that figure, and I think that’s just out of hate, because it’s not hard to understand. Those people are just drinking Elon coolade if they think starship will instantly mature through nonexistent economies of scale to $2M, which it’ll never reach in the realms of Elon coolade

[alfihalma]

1.5 bn $ for future missions. So 11.5 k$ per kg for LEO and 33.3 k$ per kg for TLI in 2025? F9 today is capable of launching at 70ish m$ with huge margin. So 4.4 k$ per kg to LEO. While being crew rated, too.

Saturn V was at ~ 1.1 bn $ per launch. So 9.2 k$ per kg to LEO and 23.9 k$ per kg to TLI. In 1970!

So Saturn V was cheaper than SLS despite being the first of it's kind, without modern computers, aaaall the years of experience in building and managing rockets and launches. So the cost benchmark shouldn't be Saturn V, it should be Saturn V halved at least due to modern technology and lots of experience (over 50 years!).

[drds]

Accounting is all about how you present the numbers to tell the story you want to be told. The real number is somewhere between the lowest and highest cost figures. I know that's kinda vague but so is government accounting.

[AllThingsSpace]

Good video from my understanding is that the artemis mission cost is 4.1 billion ORION and HLS included with the SLS cost

[GRSALAD]

Still seems like such a shame to be using these flight-proven engines that've been around for decades, on a rocket that's just going to throw them out completely after using them once :(

[jamesengland]

This is just a bunch of rationalizations for an outrageously cost-overrun system.

[marsspacex]

It’s actually 8 billion when you include development costs over the first 10 flights.

[FoxBoi]

you are right when saying that orion is a payload and should not be included in the price of the launch vehicle. however, i'm not sure if other rockets such as delta iv could sned it beyond leo

[iamarokotmanson]

Let's just take the $2.8b number at face value, I think it's pretty close either way, to make some points-

- Launch ~56 Falcon 9s (840t LEO)
- ~30 Vulcan Centuars ( 810t LEO)
- 12 Dragon 2s ( 48ppl LEO)
- 7 Starliners (28ppl LEO)

You can do either one of those for the cost of one single SLS launch (4ppl/105t LEO).

[jaypaint]

I keep hearing people say that the SLS core stage has no heritage with any existing components. That’s not true. It’s just an extended external fuel tank from the shuttle with a redesigned oxygen tank. This was done so that the same assembly line could be used for SLS cores as for shuttle external tanks with minimal changes, which saved further money.

[GRSALAD]

I agree with it being silly to count the cost of payload in with the launch cost. However, you did gloss over the ground systems. Those are very much tied to the rocket launch cost, and I think should be counted. And ~$2.7 billion for initial missions and ~$2 billion for following missions is still an INCREDIBLE amount of money. As far as I'm aware, no planned missions for SLS couldn't be done on a Falcon Heavy for under $0.2 billion. In fact, a few things planned for SLS have been moved to Falcon Heavy, like some lunar gateway modules and the Europa Clipper satellite.

Not even gonna get into Starship, because there's just too many question marks (NASA selecting it as the HLS is still puzzling to me). Elon says it'll be $2 million for the same mass to LEO as SLS, which is incredibly unbelievable. I'll eat my hat if it's under $100mil to launch Starship, but the sky high costs of SLS leave Starship a whole lot of room to be a cheaper alternative, even if they do need several launches to match the mass to TLI of SLS.

[ryderhaddad]

As much as I LOVE SLS and Orion, that price tag makes me wince a little. Lets hope that the (by far) most beautiful rocket ever made can keep's it's cost down.

[anguscovoflyer]

I wish astronauts were on artemis 1! they had astronauts on the very first flight of the space shuttle!

[jimmcneal]

Even 2 billion per launch is so much higher than strarship's entire cost. It's insane, how SLS can even compete...

[AndrewHillis_]

WHAT ABOUT THE PROJECT CANCELLATION COSTS FOR THE CONSTELLATION PROGRAM AND THE ARES SERIES OF ROCKETS??? THIS MUST HAVE RAN INTO MANY MILLIONS MAYBE EVEN BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ADDED TO THE HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT WAS ALREADY INVESTED INTO THIS CANCELLED PROJECT ! ! ! ? ? ?🤔

[iamarokotmanson]

You won't launch SLS without ESG or Bro what are you saying