MORE FUEL ON THE SLS FIRE!
I just read a very incriminating article from a very well established technical newsletter. It said that:
"One major implication of NASA's $2.89 billion award to SpaceX in April for the Human Landing System is that the contract provided significant funding for the Starship rocket and its Super Heavy booster. This advanced launch system will directly compete with NASA's Space Launch System rocket, which is built by traditional space contractors and provides thousands of jobs in all 50 states. If Starship works, which seems increasingly likely, it will launch more payload than the SLS booster, for substantially less money, all while being reusable. In short, it should be superior to NASA's SLS rocket in every conceivable way, except
politically."
Unfortunately certain members of congress don't want to kill the already obsolete SLS because much of the billions of appropriated dollars will be stopped in Alabama and other states that keep people working on something that makes no practical sense. The article goes on to say:
“This is pretty wild for a couple of reasons. For one, all of the HLS bidders were told they could choose whatever rockets they preferred to launch on back in 2019. At the time, NASA and Boeing actually pitched
a "commercial" version of the SLS for lunar landers. None of the main three bidders (SpaceX, Blue Origin, or Dynetics) chose the SLS rocket, of course. It was too expensive, and there was no guarantee NASA or Boeing could build them at a high enough rate.
In addition to mandating lunar lander flights, the supporting congressman says that NASA must have a plan for an SLS cargo launch once a year by 2032. Imagine how this provision, had it been adopted, would have hamstrung NASA. Congress is basically telling the agency, 'More than a decade from now, you have to use this super-expensive rocket every year, whether you need it or not. And to make sure you do so, we're writing it into law.' How can NASA possibly know that it will need to launch a mission per year on a cargo version of the SLS rocket in 11 years? It cannot, of course."
Are some folks out there insane? Will the SLS be less obsolete in 2032 than now?
PLEASE LET'S GET REAL AND STOP THE WASTED EXPENSES RIGHT NOW!!