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Report: NASA May Miss SLS Launch Deadline
An anonymous reader writes: A post at the Planetary Society's blog summarizes a report from NASA's Office of Inspector General which says the agency will struggle to get launch facilities up and running in time for the Space Launch System's November 2018 launch deadline. "Ground systems are a critical piece of the SLS-Orion infrastructure. All three elements are tightly integrated, with ground systems requiring significant input from the rocket and capsule designs." To be more specific, NASA has found 462 separate inter-dependencies, less than two-thirds of which have been resolved so far. "The Mobile Launcher must be moved into the Vehicle Assembly Building for testing prior to the delivery of SLS and Orion. When it comes time to stack the rocket and capsule for the first flight, there may be a 'learning curve,' said the OIG, where engineers work through unforeseen glitches." They're also worried about having to develop all the software to run these systems before the hardware is in place to test.
But it would be news if they made the launch date
If NASA had a bigger budget several years ago, work on launch facilities could have started earlier, and be ready on time. Think of all the stuff sequestration is hurting right now.
Outsource the whole operation to SpaceX or Boeing and then have them be responsible for hitting the deadline.
It won't cost more then what it currently costs, the US will retain the internal capability to do the work... and we'll be able to put real pressure on the whole institution to actually hit deadlines.
They want to get paid? Deliver on the contract.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Sorry if this seems like hero worship, but I see it more as practical and common sense. If a guy like Elon Musk can build up a company like SpaceX, then we should make him 'Space Czar', and hand over the NASA budget to him.
I can expound on why, but the only thing I can think of is: 'period'!
They have to be here somewhere. ....must....look....surprised....
I suppose that is why the government spending and revenue as a percentage of GDP increased by an average of about 2.5% of GDP per decade for the past seven decades. If you want to make a cancer analogy....
we should cut the budget
.5% of the budget.
that has nothing to do with nasa, who brings in some
We can still cut the budget in other areas that are rife with abuse, and not touch (or give more to) nasa
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
You must find and itemize any and all unforeseen problems that could crop up, complete with solutions and procedure to minimize their impact.
THE SOFTWARE, IT NO WORKY!!!
One man's abuse is another man's necessity.
Deciding who is right is the problem.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Then you look and see what counts as government spending has changed.
Maybe they could do something crazy like making a general puopse launch center that can handle SLS, Space-X, others, now and into the future instead of starting from scratch on each new program.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
and he did.
Potemkin rocket launch delayed!
NASA has found 462 separate inter-dependencies, less than two-thirds of which have been resolved so far.
sounds like someone deleted systemd from their software repo. ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
It was not that complicated to launch stuff during the space race time with USSR. Was NASA killed by quality control procedures?
Last year the National Research Council published a report that stated USA Launch Capability will not be achievable for another 50 years at least. Additionally the time and infrastructure needed to facilitate a Human cargo to a return to the Moon, irrespective to Mars, would need an additional 50 years.
The only thing that NASA is doing now is to burn through the money the Bush Administration gave it, and that is the only reason for the SLS.
The SLS was programmed to fail even before any hardware was built.
Musk cannot eat enough cocaine to grow a brain suitable to solve the problem; Musk is part of the problem; he is obsolete before birth.
Ha ha
First off, it IS complicated. This IS rocket science.
Secondly, the problem is the GOP. They want NASA as a jobs bill only in their district. Private space is not under their control so they have issues.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Constellation, like SLS, were giveaways for the GOP. Thank god the SLS will be dead in 2-3 years, though NASA will have wave wasted some 30 billion because you GOP cocksuckers hate America.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
The problem has been neo-cons that increase spending while giving taxcuts and destroying the economy.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
The Obama administration HATES this rocket and has been slow-walking it all along. They tried to kill it but the Senate (then under Democrat control) wrote it into law (which is why some critics call SLS the "Senate Launch System"). Every year of the program, the Obama team has asked for LESS money for SLS and congress as forced them to accept more (same thing is happening this year - administrator Bolden testified recently on capitol hill that he has too much money for SLS). Every year, the Obama admin tries shifting money from SLS to commercial crew (they refuse to fully-fund BOTH because they hate SLS and congress, in an angry response refuses to boost both because that would seem to reward bad behavior).
This is hand-in-hand with the lie that they were converting KSC into a "21st century multi-user space port" when all they were really douing was making certain the shuttle program could never be restarted, and guaranteeing no future manned mars mission. Instead of having multiple vendors stack in the VAB high bays and roll-out to one of two "clean pads" on vendor-specific MLPs atop the crawlers (as they sold it congress and the public) they cut a deal with SpaceX to let SpaceX build a permanent structure in the crawler way on the path to pad39A - so 39A will never be able to launch an SLS (or anything else but a Falcon). This means only 39B can launch an SLS and given the time it takes to refurb a pad between launches there will be no way to launch multiple SLSs in quick-enough succession to support a manned Mars project. (multiple launches would be required close together because LOX and LH2 boil-off rapidly - you cannot park a fully-fuelled mars departure stage in LEO for more than a couple days awaiting the rest of the mission package before the fuel evaporates)
SLS is required by the 2010 law to be ready to fly in 2017, yet each year the Obama team says they need LESS money and then they say the date will slip (first they said it would slip into FISCAL 2017 (calendar 2018 - it's a budget technicality)) and they pretended to be obeying the law. Now in the so-called 4th quarter of the President's term, however, all bets are off and he's in full-on ignore-the-laws mode.
Hey, idiot! your DO realize that it was a DEMOCRAT congress that forced Obama to build SLS right???????
You're either completely dishonest or completely ignorant.
What simpering idiot rated the previous poster a "troll" and gave YOU a score of 2??????????
Last year the Nation Academies of Science issued a report which indicated a return flight to the Moon or even a new flight to Mars would be impossible for at least 50 years and most likely not possible for another 150 years.
The Reason.
The USA does not have the economy, industrial infrastructure nor educational infrastructure to allow humans to the trained, let alone educated for such a task.
150 years.
Yes. The dismal efforts of the current NASA and the SLS, payed for by the Bush Administration, are insufficient and will fail.
150 years.
Can you imagine that 150 years ago, 1865, the USA, near this day, was about to sign an armistice to end the Civil War! Can you ever imagine that.
Robert H. Goddard would not be born for another 17 years after and who would design, build and launch a liquid propelled rocket on March 16, 1926.
We are as far away from launching a mission to the moon or mars as the Vikings launching a mission to Tierra del Fuego in 10000 BC.
Here's the actual law
which you will note is dated October 11th 2010.
Here's the Wikipage for that congress
which proves the Democrats controlled that US Senate at the time by a 56-to-42 margin.
The NASA particulars ware driven by the Senate rather than the House (which is both why it's called the "Senate Launch System" AND how it got passed, given that Harry Reid (D-Nevada) ran the senate and refused to allow any House bills to even be debated in the Senate between 2010 and 2014; when Harry lost the majority last fall he had parked over 400 House bills in his desk without debate or vote.
Liars like you pollute the internet with misinformation. The fact that you feel compelled to lie proves that you know the facts are contrary to your beliefs and you cannot win an argument truthfully.