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Old April 18th 17, 02:45 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Default SLS launches likely delayed

In article om,
says...

On 2017-04-17 12:25, Jeff Findley wrote:

man the first flight. This article essentially admits that there are no
reserves in the budget to handle anything unexpected.


Fair enough.

But by now, wouldn't SLS and Orion each be well into the
tests/validation period so that the major flaws have already been found
and dealt with?


Considering neither SLS nor a complete Orion has flown yet, I'd say no.

at this point in time, aren't SLS and Orion more or less in testing
phase similar to aircraft flight testing? NASA has dropped Orion in
water, tested parachutes etc. They test fired the SSMEs.


Those are all tests of individual components. The first "all up" test
will be EM-1.

Or has NASA not yet tested integration of all of the components, and
that remains the BIG generator of delays ?


Again, EM-1 is the first test flight. There is no substitute for
actually flying Orion on top of SLS.

Jeff
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