NASA wants to use its SLS mobile launch once, then replace it
Government in action! After spending almost a half billion to reconfigure the Apollo mobile launcher first for Ares and then for SLS, NASA now says it needs to build a completely new mobile launcher to replace it.
Apparently, all the work did not make the mobile launcher usable for the larger SLS that will launch astronauts.
According to Hambleton, NASA has made no decision on a second mobile launcher. She declined to address the question of costs. A 2012 report from NASA’s inspector general estimated the costs of building a new mobile launcher then at $122 million, but a new structure expressly for the larger Block 1B rocket to be used for the second flight of the SLS rocket would almost certainly cost more.
Additionally, If NASA builds a new mobile launcher, the modified one now being configured for the first SLS flight would likely be used just once—a waste of infrastructure that cost perhaps half a billion dollars and more than a decade of development.
The absurdity of this is appalling. They spent a decade and half a billion reconfiguring the mobile launcher, under the guise that reusing the old one saved NASA money. Now they want to build a new one?
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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Government in action! After spending almost a half billion to reconfigure the Apollo mobile launcher first for Ares and then for SLS, NASA now says it needs to build a completely new mobile launcher to replace it.
Apparently, all the work did not make the mobile launcher usable for the larger SLS that will launch astronauts.
According to Hambleton, NASA has made no decision on a second mobile launcher. She declined to address the question of costs. A 2012 report from NASA’s inspector general estimated the costs of building a new mobile launcher then at $122 million, but a new structure expressly for the larger Block 1B rocket to be used for the second flight of the SLS rocket would almost certainly cost more.
Additionally, If NASA builds a new mobile launcher, the modified one now being configured for the first SLS flight would likely be used just once—a waste of infrastructure that cost perhaps half a billion dollars and more than a decade of development.
The absurdity of this is appalling. They spent a decade and half a billion reconfiguring the mobile launcher, under the guise that reusing the old one saved NASA money. Now they want to build a new one?
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Everything with the SLS has been totally redesigned from the ground up. It has no heritage at all from the space shuttle. And it is of course much more expensive and takes many more years to totally redesign every single detail in an existing launch system, than to start from scratch. The Soviets learned that the hard way when they tried to copy the Concorde through industrial espionage. It killed a bunch of high communists in its crashes until it was canceled (the Senate Launch System will unfortunately not live up to its nick name in that respect).
That is a major concern for its reliability! Not any single component of the thingy has any record of flight history. My expectations are that at least half of the first five SLS+Orion launches fail, which is normal for completely out of the blue untested new launchers. And NASA does nothing but follow exactly that tradition. No attempt to innovate anything at all.
The Planetary Society has over the years celebrated each and everyone of these NASA budget sink holes and delays. They apparently are totally uninterested in planetary exploration and just think it is fun that tax payers pay for some guys meaninglessly playing with LEGO. The welder, the gates of the assembly building, the crawler, the launch pad, the barge, the main engines, the solid boosters, the upper stage, the launch escape tower and on and on and on and on still with no end in sight.
The opposite idea of the SLS would’ve been to base a new launcher on existing space shuttle technologies. That idea was completely rejected. Maybe it was impossible because of lost tooling and organization over the 40 years since those production facilities were in operation. Everything had to be created from scratch with no previous experience applicable.
Hearing about the SLS and Orion (and now the DSG) is precisely like seeing a small child’s drawing. It is overly excitedly described as an illustration of an elephant living in a house. But it doesn’t look anything like it and the only thoughts are about the child’s mental state and temper (and need for a diaper shift, and what damage has been done to the surrounding furniture this time). There is nothing to be said about SLS+Orion+DSG technically. It is nothing but a subject for therapy. Rocket science and space exploration are in no way involved in this zero result psycho analytical talking topic.
SLS = Szero Legacy Szero innovation.
Exploration of two worlds indeed, the worst of both worlds of legacy and innovation!
They say it will take 33 months to upgrade the existing launcher. I’m sure a new launcher would add at least another 10 years before they can actually attempt a first launch on the new launcher.
Isn’t the Saturn V in Houston pretty much complete? I think the one in Florida has a test article for its first stage. Florida also has the Skylab rescue capsule, along with the Saturn 1B to carry it.
I joke that we could take that one and make it flight ready before SLS ever gets off the ground. Heck, a few years ago they got some F1s out of storage and fired up the turbo pump motor for a bit. There’s a great story about it on Ars Technica. They also laser scanned one of the engines to put it in a CAD program.
That SLS is still around is all you need to know about govt. It’s way beyond time to replace them with small govt. believers.