The latest.
Spending $23,000,000,000 to get to flight 1. https://t.co/MSgbBxjukp
— Ben Brockert (@wikkit) May 15, 2017
Here’s a nice timeline of the mess going back to the original idiotic NASA authorization in 2010.
What a Charlie Foxtrot.
7 thoughts on “SLS Follies”
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I don’t see what the problem is. For $23 billion we could have built a couple extra Ford class aircraft carriers, but we wouldn’t have a giant space rocket. But this way, we don’t have a couple extra Ford class aircraft carriers or a giant space rocket.
“I don’t see what the problem is….this way, we don’t have a couple extra Ford class aircraft carriers or a giant space rocket.”
Hey George, I think you found the problem.
The timeline was interesting, especially in comparison to Apollo.
Apollo:
May 25, 1961 JFK speaks to a joint session of Congress, and announces his goal of landing on the moon.
November 9, 1967 Apollo 4, the first Saturn V, is launched. Elapsed time from JFK speech, 2,359 days.
July 20, 1969 Apollo 11’s lunar module lands on the moon. Elapsed time from JFK speech, 2,978 days.
SLS:
October 11, 2010 President Obama signs the NASA authorization bill directing NASA to develop SLS.
January 1, 2019 (at the earliest) The first launch of SLS. Elapsed time from NASA authorization, 3,004 days.
We are so much smarter today, aren’t we?
To add to your point, work on the F-1 engine began in 1959. By the time of JFK’s speech, the engine was far from completion. The engine had severe combustion instability problems that took time to solve. By way of contrast, the SLS was mandated to use Shuttle legacy components to the greatest extent possible. The first few flights will use left over SSMEs. Despite that, the SLS is running late and over budget.
And we also have computer aided design and analysis tools that were supposed to make it quicker, easier and cheaper to design and build “stuff” today, all of which that could hardly be dreamed of in 1969.
They’ve only had $23b to get the job done. If only they had some real money that would do the job!
If I had that I guarantee I’d have a vacation home and full staff on mars by 2030 (could go earlier. The tough part is persuading the staff. Who would all quit within months of arriving to start their own businesses and get staff of their own.) Mars is going to be a wild place if govt. doesn’t have everybody fitted with exploding dog collars (by which I mean any method used to keep control of the sheeple.) That may be the real reason for the SLS to mars fraud. They know in their lizard brains they can’t control the colonists once beyond the govt. grip.
Design. Build. Launch. Analyze. Repeat.
SpaceX (among others) has been doing this since they started, with multiple failures along the way. They’ve kept at it though, and increased their tempo to the point they’re launching every two weeks. The Falcon Heavy will be launching soon, and with that they would be able to launch the biggest module of the Nautilus-x. And for the $23 billion spent on SLS, NASA could have built six Nautilus-x spacecraft.