Comments on: Update on SLS: Still aiming for very unlikely March launch

By: Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 06:55:24 +0000

I think it will fly Orion out to the Moon fine

By: Mike Borgelt

Mike Borgelt — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 23:31:18 +0000

One can hope it clears the pad far enough that the launch infrastructure isn’t damaged by the explosion. That might end the boondoggle or will congress go even harder?

By: Dean Hurt

Dean Hurt — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 18:10:07 +0000

What a friggin waste of time and money! SLS is a royal boondoggle and the bureaucratic class in NASA are a poor representation of the NASA of the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s. You remember, when they were able to actually get things done. I’m just praying SpaceX resists becoming a “flash in the pan”.

By: David Eastman

David Eastman — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 16:51:26 +0000

I was reading a response on another site to the eternal question about the booster life, and it appears that “one year stacked” number is not really a hard engineering number, it was something more in the way of “we know there’s a limit, we don’t really know what it is, one year is far more than will ever happen in the shuttle program, so we’ll put that down.” Apparently they’re confident that 18 months won’t be a problem, and beyond that they’ll have to inspect and see what propellant and seals look like, it may be fine, it may be something they can waive or address quickly, or it may require a de-stack.

By: MDN

MDN — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 16:33:31 +0000

Bob:

So how long does the “extended” shelf life of the stacked boosters run? That was a hard limit they faced and have already fudged on a bit, and will soon loom large if they start facing most any additional delay.