Europa Clipper clippings

Eric Berger, writing at Teslarati, is rather down on NASA's EC
managment, and the handcuffs provided by Capitol Hill:

quote
[...] that means that if Falcon Heavy was ready to launch Europa
Clipper when the spacecraft is expected to be ready in 2024, it would
actually arrive at the same time (or close) if it launched on SLS –
once a minimum two-year launch vehicle delay is accounted for. A Falcon
Heavy would also save NASA at least $1-2 billion, while it would
directly save the Europa Clipper program the ~$250 million it would
otherwise need to spend to store the spacecraft while waiting years for
an SLS rocket. That $250 million alone – an inevitable add-on cost if
SLS is chosen – could easily double the budget of every single Europa
Clipper science instrument, adding plenty of breathing room,
reinstating ICEMAG, and likely improving the science they output –
data-gathering quite literally being the whole purpose of the mission.
/quote

He says the only sign of hope is that Congress might open a small
opportunity to switch launchers, based on one of the rewrites of a
draft bill.

URL:https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-nasa-europa-clipper-cost-savings-dilemma/

/dps

--
"Inviting people to laugh with you while you are laughing at yourself
is a good thing to do, You may be a fool but you're the fool in
charge." -- Carl Reiner