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Old April 14th 18, 05:18 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Default More Flights of SLS Block 1

In article ,
says...

NASA is apparently having problem with their new upper stage and is
now planning on flying at least the next three missions on the
original SLS Block 1 hardware. Current estimates say the new upper
stage won't be ready until at least the mid-2020's.

This means a couple of things.

1) NASA is talking about flying three missions and using 12 of their
small stock of Shuttle engines on missions that don't really further
their plans. Block 1 hardware with Ares on it is about 9 tonnes short
in payload, which means none of the Lunar Gateway deployment can
happen.


Agreed. Waste of perfectly good SSME's. Plus it's putting people on an
upper stage that wasn't planned to be "man rated". But NASA writes the
rules and the waivers, so that's never been a real problem.

The "upside" is that it "gets Orion flying more often and sooner", so
the Congresscritters will be happy that their pork spending is
"producing results".

2) They could just as easily fly those missions on something like
Falcon Heavy and save a lot of money (and those engines).


Clearly, but then people would ask why we're ****ing away billions of
$$$ on SLS without it even flying!

By the time they get the new upper stage ready, they'll need funding
for a new contract to produce more engines so that Block 1B can fly.


This is some serious bull$hit. Saturn I's upper stage used 6 RL-10
engines. It's not that f#cking hard to design and build a new upper
stage using LOX/LH2 using *existing* engines.

Pardon my language, but SLS is a burning dumpster fire. The lost
opportunity cost, going forward from here, is staggering. This is
doubly true because we have alternatives to SLS which are far cheaper
and can perform all of the planned missions for SLS.

Note that I'm not counting fantasy missions which are decades away (like
a lunar landing mission or a manned Mars mission). I'm talking about
Deep Space Gateway (all of the modules for that are small and could go
up by themselves on Delta IV Heavy and/or Falcon Heavy) and the deep
space probes (which could go up on Delta IV Heavy as long as they're
sized appropriately).


And, if we're lucky, BFR will be flying by the time the Exploration
Upper Stage starts flying. Maybe, finally, we can kill SLS when a fully
reusable TSTO with better payload capability is flying. Until then,
keep the pork flowing! :-P

Jeff
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