Trump administration asks Senate to remove SLS requirement for Europa Clipper
The Trump administration has requested the Senate to change the language in its NASA spending bill to remove its requirement that Europa Clipper be launched on SLS.
NASA wants the option to launch the Europa probe using commercial rockets, such as SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. It also says that there are technical reasons that make using SLS problematic, and worse, the agency simply does not have enough SLS rockets to fly its planned (but unfunded) manned Artemis missions and also launch Europa Clipper.
The House has already removed that requirement in its version of the bill. The Senate has not, probably because the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), is a big fan of SLS (much of it built in his state), and has acted for years to pump money into that project.
If the requirement is not removed, Europa Clipper’s launch will likely be delayed by several years, and cost $1.5 billion more.
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The Trump administration has requested the Senate to change the language in its NASA spending bill to remove its requirement that Europa Clipper be launched on SLS.
NASA wants the option to launch the Europa probe using commercial rockets, such as SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. It also says that there are technical reasons that make using SLS problematic, and worse, the agency simply does not have enough SLS rockets to fly its planned (but unfunded) manned Artemis missions and also launch Europa Clipper.
The House has already removed that requirement in its version of the bill. The Senate has not, probably because the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), is a big fan of SLS (much of it built in his state), and has acted for years to pump money into that project.
If the requirement is not removed, Europa Clipper’s launch will likely be delayed by several years, and cost $1.5 billion more.
I must unfortunately ask you for your financial support because I do not depend on ads and rely entirely on the generosity of readers to keep Behind the Black running. You can either make a one time donation for whatever amount you wish, or you sign up for a monthly subscription ranging from $2 to $15 through Paypal or $3 to $50 through Patreon.
Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
Your support is even more essential to me because I not only keep this site free from advertisements, I do not use the corrupt social media companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook to promote my work. I depend wholly on the direct support of my readers.
You can provide that support to Behind The Black with a contribution via Patreon or PayPal. To use Patreon, go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. For PayPal click one of the following buttons:
If Patreon or Paypal don't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
Or you can donate by using Zelle through your bank. You will need to give my name and email address (found at the bottom of the "About" page). The best part of this electronic option is that no fees will be deducted! What you donate will be what I receive.
This idea will also soon pass.
One can not live without the other.
From the article:
That is a scary thought. For a leader in space, this country’s leaders sure aren’t enthusiastic about it. This would make it the third time that our manned presence in space was either non-existent or depended upon others. Between Skylab and the Space Shuttle, we did nothing except a political rendezvous with our rival country, the Apollo-Soyuz “experiment.” From 2011 to this year, we were entirely dependent upon the same rivals for transport to the ISS, which we supposedly lead. Now we soon may not have any space station at all.
For the past decade, or so, we had expected Bigelow to start a business with their expandable space habitats, but there is serious concern that they will not restart their aerospace business after the Wuhan Flu/Plague Scare From Hell is over. Axiom and Ixion are working on their own versions of space habitats, but they are the ones depending upon NASA’s underfunded commercialization budget to get this done in the 2020s, hopefully before ISS is decommissioned, otherwise we would be left in the blind.
It looks like Sierra Nevada wants to get into the space habitat business, too.
https://spacenews.com/first-dream-chaser-mission-slips-to-2022/
From the Dream Chaser article, above:
This is a bit exciting. Now that there are doubts as to whether Bigelow will come back, there seems to be another company preparing to take over this product. How quickly they can do it is a good question.
I don’t think that SpaceX is the be-all end-all for space exploration (despite its official name), but I do think it will be an important part for the next couple of decades, or so. I expect SpaceX to adapt a version of its manned Starship into a space station. SpaceX will be eager to verify that Starship is capable of long duration missions, and a space station is an excellent way to do this. This would also give a destination, other than the ISS, to Dragon, Starliner, Starship, and other commercial manned spacecraft, such as the crewed version of Dream Chaser. An interesting side effect to using Starship as a space station is its ability for reentry back to Earth in order to perform overhauls.
I think SpaceX would support other commercial manned space companies to use its space station. Dragon is a short-term objective that helps them with their long term goal of reaching Mars. Starliner and a crewed Dream Chaser are not really the competition for SpaceX’s long-term goal. Having more people on their space station could only help them develop the methods and hardware that they will need for their longer duration Mars missions.
The timing of those successors depends upon the funding from Congress. I don’t think that SpaceX wants to be part of a long-term LEO space station solution, but Sierra Nevada wants to join Axiom and Ixion as commercial space station providers.