SLS likely facing another launch delay
Engineers for NASA’s SLS rocket have determined that they need to replace the flight controller on one of the engines in the rocket’s core stage, an action that will likely force a delay from the presently scheduled February launch date.
After performing a series of inspections and troubleshooting, engineers determined the best course of action is to replace the engine controller, returning the rocket to full functionality and redundancy while continuing to investigate and identify a root cause. NASA is developing a plan and updated schedule to replace the engine controller while continuing integrated testing and reviewing launch opportunities in March and April.
It appears they hope to make this change-out quickly and only have to delay one or two months, though at the moment it is also unclear this will be possible.
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Engineers for NASA’s SLS rocket have determined that they need to replace the flight controller on one of the engines in the rocket’s core stage, an action that will likely force a delay from the presently scheduled February launch date.
After performing a series of inspections and troubleshooting, engineers determined the best course of action is to replace the engine controller, returning the rocket to full functionality and redundancy while continuing to investigate and identify a root cause. NASA is developing a plan and updated schedule to replace the engine controller while continuing integrated testing and reviewing launch opportunities in March and April.
It appears they hope to make this change-out quickly and only have to delay one or two months, though at the moment it is also unclear this will be possible.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. 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.
For a moment I was confused b/c I thought SLS was supposed to launch this month, but then I realized I was thinking of the Webb Telescope…you know, the OTHER hideously overschedule and overbudget NASA boondoggle. :D
“NASA is developing a plan and updated schedule to replace the engine controller”……SpaceX would have it ripped apart by now. The plan would be” replace the part and start now”
The real plan: Lets see how much we can add to the bill. When you own a boat you alsays said BOAT Stood for “Break Out Another Thousland” With SLs it would be Break out another Billion.
Gee, SpaceX installed 29 engines in 14 hours.
NASA will take a month to change a component (An important one, and no doubt non-trivial to change) on a single engine.
Hmm… Which seems like a more sustainable model? I wonder…
SLS has a lower part count. Boeing needs its own Musk. Now I hear he may want to step down from Tesla (good) and SpaceX (bad) to be an “influencer.”
What?
They ought to switch WEB to a SLS launch. That way their delays can cover for each other.
JhonB
Its bit BOAT break out another thousand.
Its close with Break out another billion.
But it would be better if it was Break Out Others Billions.
Why don’t they seek the advice of Sen. Elizabeth Warren? She seems to understand how American innovation works… pay more taxes so the government has more to piss away.
“SpaceX would have it ripped apart by now.”
Well only if the Foreman was there. If it was an off-shift and the Assistant Foreman was in charge, he would have correctly phoned the Foreman first, and then had it torn down.
“SLS likely facing another launch delay”
This is the “dog bites man” of space stories.
Its bit BOAT break out another thousand.
Except when Congress is involved these days, that is an acronym for Break Out Another Trillion.
Michael, My thoughts exactly. They deserve one another
Jester – OUCH!! The truth in those words is painful.
I can remember aviation writer Bill Gunston quoting a senator on an Air Force contract, “We will never again have $20 million airplanes!”
Gunston’s comment, “The senator was absolutely correct. Never again was an aircraft so cheap”
Deceptive advertising, explicitly Woke goals.
“SLS will be the most powerful rocket in the world and is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission. With the Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon and establish long-term exploration in preparation for missions to Mars.”
Patrick Underwood
I’m really so disappointed that NASA is so lagging behind the Woke reality. So who cares about the first woman and the first colored person on the moon? I would have expected that the first transgender woman would be brought to the moon, but she must have previously been a world-famous male astronaut and must be married now to another transgender woman. That would be the least, wouldn’t it?
Of course SLS has a lower parts count, the damned thing uses solid rockets! Only stupid designers (or NASA) put solids on manned boosters! They vibrate too much, make too much noise, and you can‘t shut them off or throttle them!
From the financial blog Motley Fool
“At an estimated $1.55 billion in cost per launch, and $209 billion total over its 30-year history, the U.S. Space Shuttle program was easily NASA’s most expensive project since the Apollo Moon Program — but NASA’s next project is going to make it look like a bargain. Two years ago, an investigation by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimated that each time NASA launches its new Space Launch System (SLS), taxpayers will ante up “over $2 billion.”
As it turns out, OMB was being optimistic.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasa-s-sls-rocket-just-got-3-2-billion-more-expensive/ar-AARZq3K?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531