And using the dual purpose landing rockets underneath the crewed part of the spacecraft also for a launch abort, is much better than using a dedicated launch abort tower on top of it. It doesn’t only save alot of mass, it is also much safer. The launch abort tower must separate from Orion, not only during a launch abort, but at every launch!

If the tower does not separate during a launch abort, Orion will crash hard because the parachutes cannot be deployed. If Orion lands upright, the tower will smash through Orion’s roof, and perhaps remaining fuel will explode. If the tower does not separate after a successful launch, Orion will be too massive to reach orbit and will crash down far away after a ballistic trajectory, again without being able to deploy parachutes.

If NASA has some plan B for the case that the tower doesn’t separate, I’d like to hear about it. I can give so much that launch abort towers thus far always have separated, on Saturn V and the Atlas used for the Mercury missions and of course Soviet/Russian Soyuz. It is separated with explosive bolts that have proven very reliable. But the concept is still an extra and unnecessary lethal failure point.

Jeff Wright: Download Capitalism in Space (free pdf), read it, and then tell us what you think of SLS.

Also, do a search of Behind the Black for SLS and read some of its history. We aren’t getting much for the billions we’ve spent.

Starship lacks both.

I wish both programs well.

https://youtu.be/ry55–J4_VQ?t=18

Oh, wait. That makes the technology 41 years behind the times. Except without the reusability. So it is more like Apollo, closer to 55 years behind. NASA is moving backward, not forward.

The Soviets did it in the 1980s with their one and only Buran/Enigma launch! It was optionally crewed, and was not on its one and only space flight. It was cancelled only because of Soviet becoming a failed state and NASA/Congress whoever responsible too stupid to rent it in the 1990s.

This is both contractors problems.
This project has been going on for 10+ years now. You can not tell me that someplace along the way one contractor just arbitrarily said “Well lets just use all standard bolts on this job.” and NEVER in years told the other contractors.
And you can not tell me that in years no one ever asked “I wonder if the other guys are using standard or metric bolts?”
(bolts are just an example)

But after years there has got to be a little communication between the contractors.

Stuff like this is pushed back as far as possible because the contractors know all they have to do is address it to a few choice congressmen and they will get more cash to fix it.

I’m sure the right thing will be done, eventually, at a price.

Still, this is just one more reason for NASA and the White House to tell Shelby and Aderholt to go get stuffed, because this mission needs to launch on a Falcon Heavy. It’s just a no brainer at this point. The risks aren’t worth it.

Unfortunately, they don’t have to. SLS is not about actual space exploration. It’s about welfare for the over educated. If the damn thing never flies and ends up as yet another lawn ornament, it will have fulfilled its mission as far as the folks who funded it are concerned.