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Old April 17th 17, 12:51 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Posts: 2,307
Default SLS launches likely delayed

In article ,
says...

Looks like NASA's first two launches of the SLS for their lunar tests
will be delayed by a year or more.



Why am I not surprised? And of course, the OIG says that the problem is
"all of the programs supporting these first couple of flights are not
being funded at recommended levels". On the one hand I can see why
they're saying this. But on the other, with the kind of money we're
throwing at SLS, you'd think that NASA would be getting "enough".

That means SpaceX will almost certainly be there before them.


Possibly, but SpaceX isn't immune from schedule slips. They have lost
one Falcon 9 in flight and one during fueling for a hot fire test. Both
of these incidents delayed the program quite significantly.

Also, while I'm rooting for them, they still have not had a successful
Falcon Heavy test. Parallel staging is different enough from serial
staging that I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch on
this one.

I've been labeled a "fan boy" who "drinks the kool-aid" many times with
regards to SpaceX, which confuses me since I think I usually have a
fairly healthy dose of skepticism whenever they do anything new. My
theory is the SpaceX "haters" just wish SpaceX would magically disappear
and everything would go back to "normal". But "normal" wasn't, and
still isn't, cutting it at either ULA or with SLS. With launch costs
far too high, we're never going to Mars, except for maybe a flags and
footprints mission. Hell, look at ULA's dwindling commercial launch
manifest.

Jeff
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