back to article NASA unveils its chosen Shuttle successor

NASA has announced plans for a massive rocket based on recycled space shuttle technology, intended to launch manned missions beyond Earth orbit in decades to come. The Space Launch System (SLS) will make use of a central first stage equipped with no less than five shuttle main engines (the now-retired orbiter spaceplanes …

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  1. Mike Flugennock
    Thumb Up

    Deja vu all over again

    Saturn MLV-V-4, anyone?

    http://astronautix.com/lvs/satlvv4s.htm

    "American orbital launch vehicle. MSFC study, 1965. Saturn V core, strengthened but not stretched, with 4 Titan UA1205 strap-on solid rocket boosters..."

  2. Gary B.
    FAIL

    Here we go again...

    Congress just barely funds NASA to give their corporate friends some money, but then they don't want to fund NASA enough to actually be useful. I wish these clowns would just make up their mind what they want to do. I do believe the future of space travel lies with private industry, but having a mix of commercial and private is not making the most use of us tax payer's dollars. Just another example of the flawed reasoning behind the "trickle down" theory of economics that they subscribe to.

    Anyone else see a parallel with the US space program and the music industry?

  3. Daedalus
    Boffin

    More NASA pork, more delay, less space

    As usual, NASA is reinventing everything instead of going with what we already know, and what is already 90% of the maximum that is physically possible. NASA is aided here by credulous politicians and journalists who don't understand rockets.

    Power isn't everything. In space, efficiency IS everything. A low-thrust engine that works at highest amount of delta-V per kg. of fuel is way better than a monster thruster. But you do need monster rockets to get into the sub-orbital regime. Solid boosters have a lot of thrust but are low in delta-V/kg. They get you off the ground. The space shuttle main engine is a high-efficiency engine, but to get the high efficiency it uses highly expensive technology. It would have been better to go with a less expensive rocket. Saturn V stage 1 rockets did a very good job and represent close to the maximum possible for their technology and fuel type.

    Best of all, there's Soyuz, a proven system. But no way will US politicians allow NASA to adopt anything that even looks like it.

    1. Charles Manning

      What does NASA stand for

      National Aeronautics and Space Administration

      It is an Administration, run by administrators for the benefit of administrators. No mention of science or such. Thus there is little point in expecting amazing engineering solutions - just expect plans which will guarantee the brass keep their jobs.

      As for "inspire millions around the world". Playing around in space was inspiring in the 1960s. In the 1980s I remember hundreds of people going outside to see the shuttle fly over. But just doing 50 year old tricks is no longer inspiring.

    2. Michael Overton

      This isn't NASA pork, it's congress'

      The only reason NASA is fronting this design is because the "geniuses" in congress ordered them to do it. Congress has killed funding for all research into new technology, and demanded they come up with this design, which congress will later cancel as well and blame NASA for the money that's been wasted.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm not going to hold my breath

    waiting for this thing to ever actually fly

    1. David 164

      I do not think anyone expects this to fly, in fact everyone in the administration and NASA hopes congress sees sense and cancel the entire thing.

  5. AdamT
    Facepalm

    Completely underwhelming?

    Using shuttle main engines isn't exactly a bold leap forward - weren't they they ones that got cracked turbine blades that could easily have caused a Challenger type disaster if the SRBs hadn't got there first? I suppose at least they are not planning on reusing them this time. And the SRBs look like they have joints in them still which suggests a certain lack of learning from the past. And an upper stage using apollo era engines?

    I think they missed the "not" and went for "we will only look at revising or modifying older models".

    Musk may have a tendancy to overly "big up" what they will be able to do soon, but what they have acheived so far is pretty impressive and, if he can continue at that pace, it's pretty likely that he will out-achieve the SLS before it's even test flown. Even if he can't do 130 tons (and there is no guarantee that the SLS will either) surely sending things up in smaller lumps and assembling in orbit (which is likely to be a required step even with130 tons of lift) when the launch cost is likely to be a fraction of the SLS is better?

    NASA should be designing/building the thing that gets assembled in orbit and goes to Mars/Asteroids/whatever - that would be the new exciting thing. $18bn worth of genuine new, never-been-done before technology.

    What a missed opportunity.

    1. David 164

      The Falcon Heavy is the sensible way forward.

      Unfortuantly the people that run America are not sensible. This money would be much better spent developing all the other components needed for a mission to Mars or indeed a mission to anywhere.

      An if they were sensible much of that development would be base of excisting technologies or technologies already under development.

      Blue origin craft for example look like it would make a perfect Mars lander and take off vehicles, once it bugs are figured out.

      Using Bigelow inflatable Habitat technologies to build the space ship and a Mars base of operations would also make sense.

      Using VASMIR drives for the propulsion system to mar and back from Mars make perfect sense. This also a private venture.

      Use Falcons 9s and Falcon Heavies to deliver components for in orbital assembly, using the International Station as a base of operations perhaps.

      NASA should focus it efforts on designing and building a power source capable of powering VASMIR drive and developing the life support systems capable of supporting such a mission. Plus supporting and funding the development of the above technologies. It should not focus of build earth to orbit technologies, it a wast of funds.

    2. Mike Flugennock
      Thumb Up

      SLS, SSMEs, reinventing the wheel, etc.

      "Using shuttle main engines isn't exactly a bold leap forward - weren't they they ones that got cracked turbine blades that could easily have caused a Challenger type disaster if the SRBs hadn't got there first?"

      I don't know about the cracked turbine blade issue, but iirc, the SSMEs have been far more reliable and less accident-prone (shall we say) than the SRBs. USAF experience with strap-on SRBs on the Titan III long before the Shuttle flew showed lots of problems with seals similar to the Shuttle SRB O-ring issue.

      It makes perfect sense to me that on the new SLS heavy-lift vehicle, NASA is going with technology that's already proven and has a long filght history instead of trying to invent something new from zero... although I still wonder about how the new version of the Apollo-era J2 design will work for them; with all the advancements in engineering and materials science since the '60s, you can be pretty sure they aren't just going to pull the old J2 plans and build the engines as-is from the old '60s designs.

      You also have to remember that a lot of what they're proposing for this new vehicle probably has its origins in the old "Shuttle-C" unmanned heavy-lift cargo launch system proposed in the late '80s:

      http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/shuttlec.htm

      "American orbital launch vehicle. NASA Marshall design for a cargo version of the shuttle system. The shuttle orbiter would be replaced by an unmanned recoverable main engine pod. The same concept was studied earlier as the Interim Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (IHLLV) and as the Class I Shuttle Derived Vehicle (SDV). The Phase I two-SSME configuration would have a payload of 45,000 kg to low earth orbit. Design carried to an advanced phase in 1987-1990, but then abandoned when it was found the concept had no cost advantage over existing expenable launch vehicles..."

      Granted, the new SLS heavy-lift vehicle doesn't exactly resemble the proposed Shuttle-C --

      http://www.astronautix.com/graphics/s/shuttlec.jpg

      -- but there are many similarities, such as the first-stage core based on the Shuttle main tankage powered by SSMEs with solid strap-ons.

      It's also interesting that along with reviving some elements of the old Shuttle-C proposal, the SLS vehicle also bears a striking resemblance to the old Saturn MLV-V proposed in the '60s, an uprated Saturn V with strap-on SRBs on the first stage.

      .

      As far as private industry being able to do space better... well, it's not like privately-run aerospace corporations are loaded with risk-averse leadership, or bean-counter types cutting corners and jeapordizing missions in order to save a couple of bucks... are they? Let's not forget North American's issues with workmanship, etc. on the Block I Apollo; when Gus Grissom hung a lemon from the hatch of an under-construction Block I CM after a visit to the NA plant, he wasn't just joking around.

      What also worries me is that with all these different companies all going ahead with their own programs -- instead of proposing their systems to NASA under an RFP for a contract award to build a single design -- we're going to end up in a situation much like the xUSSR during the '50s and '60s: two or three companies -- or, in the xUSSR's case, design bureaus -- going ahead and building full-up launch systems and flight hardware, and suffering all the duplication of effort and duplication of cost overruns that went with it.

      Still, I've got to admit I'm totally rooting for SpaceX, as it looks as if they've really got it going on with the Falcon launcher, and if they can get their manned version of Dragon together and get it certified, well, I sure as hell won't be complaining. Being an old '60s kid, I'm a die-hard NASA fan, but, still... what the hell, the more the merrier.

      1. AdamT

        SME turbine blade cracking

        It was in one of the high pressue fuel turbopumps. I think a similar "normalisation of deviance" process to the o-ring leasks was occuring in NASA - the cracks would be spotted but "nothing bad had happened" therefore it was OK. I recall that at one point there were launching with known cracks and measuring how much they had grown on return. I may have over estimated the impact though - i think the failures they did have led to premature engine shutdown rather than catastrophic failure. Not that engine shutdown is necessarily a trivial event.

      2. Phil Endecott

        Feyman

        > I don't know about the cracked turbine blade issue,

        Then you should read Richard Feynman's book about Challenger.

    3. annodomini2
      Thumb Down

      SRB's

      To build the SRB's without sections, the fuel grain would need to be cast as one big lump.

      I'm not saying the design is perfect, but there are practical reasons for it.

      1. AdamT

        Single piece SRBs

        I thought the original design of the shuttle SRBs was in one section? But that would have required building them near the launch complex as they would have been too large to transport. i.e. the work couldn't be done in a different state therefore the budget wouldn't have been approved if each state didn't get a piece. These ones are bigger though so that could make a difference.

        1. Aaron Em

          "I thought the original design of the shuttle SRBs was in one section?"

          Nope.

      2. hplasm
        Boffin

        As a wise man once said about the Apollo project-

        "We do these things,not because they are easy, but because they are difficult." (or similar)

        Practical methods don't arise from ease, but from difficulty.

  6. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Business as usual

    Take the most expensive and complicated bits of the existing shuttle (the SME) bolt them to the unsafe bit of the existing shuttle (the SRB) and hope.

    Wonder which senators Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Morton Thiokol own?

  7. Tomato42
    Facepalm

    Paint the main fuel tank orange and you have Ares V.

    It's exactly the same

  8. Vulch
    Holmes

    The NASA jobs have mostly gone

    Already. Most of the Shuttle processing workers at the Cape have been given their cards and there are reports of ghost towns as they move away. If the Senate Launch System ever does fly they'll need to start again with the ground crews.

    The jobs that are being kept for now are in Utah building the stretched SRBs. Eventual replacement by liquid boosters is a nice idea but will never happen while the current Utah senators hold on to office.

    1. FrankAlphaXII
      FAIL

      Ghost towns? Please.

      Look Guy, you dont live in Central Florida or else you'd never spout garbage like that. Reports of Ghost Towns? If it wasnt so damned ignorant of how Aerospace actually is here, I'd think it was hilarious. Most of it is geared toward the Military and Private Industry, NASA only ever occupied around a 3 to 5% workforce share.

      Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, who manufacture the Trident, Patriot, Javelin, Hellfire, Sidewinder, AMRAAM, and Standard Missile series for the US Army, US Navy, and several other nations is based in Orlando. Northrop Grumman Laser Systems is based in Apopka. General Dynamics has a large facility in Titusville. Harris Corporation is in Melbourne. The United Launch Alliance and Space X have large facilities at the Cape. Titusville, Melbourne, Satellite Beach, Jupiter, and Merritt Island arent exactly Ghost Towns, Lockheed Martin East Orlando/UCF and the Lockheed plant in South Orlando by Universal are a bit of a longer commute for these folks but its only about half an hour away on the 528 and 417 toll roads.

      Most people who had experience with the civilian program are already employed by the main contractors like Boeing and LM, or the thousands of sub-contractors working on Military programs, or switched over to being employed directly by the United Launch Alliance for the civilian side of the Delta and Atlas projects. Space X is also on a hiring blitz locally because COTS is most likely going to be based at LC 41 at CCAFS. Unemployment in Aerospace has actually FALLEN since May. Wont hear NASA saying it, but according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation, its true.

      The only people who really got hurt were small businesses who produced specialized parts and refused to expand beyond their comfort zone. Sucks for them. Perhaps they should have innovated in, say, 1986?

      Everyone else, as long as they weren't working on dead end technologies like ceramics or Orbiter Processing (and even then the Air Force hired a lot of them for the X-37B), has a better shot at staying in the field by staying local than nearly anywhere else with the exception of Wallops and Vandenburg.

      1. John Smith 19 Gold badge

        @FrankAlphaXii

        "Most people who had experience with the civilian program are already employed by the main contractors like Boeing and LM, or the thousands of sub-contractors working on Military programs, or switched over to being employed directly by the United Launch Alliance for the civilian side of the Delta and Atlas projects. Space X is also on a hiring blitz locally because COTS is most likely going to be based at LC 41 at CCAFS. Unemployment in Aerospace has actually FALLEN since May. Wont hear NASA saying it, but according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation, its true."

        You make it sound like it there could be trouble hiring *any* of these guys back if they have relevant experience.

        Is that correct?

  9. Charlie van Becelaere
    Black Helicopters

    Sounds like this guy

    agrees with you:

    http://iheardacouplethings.blogspot.com/2011/09/nasa-avoids-smelling-like-musk.html

    Black helicopter because who calls himself "Procrustes 17" unless he's waiting for them to find him?

  10. Gordon 10

    Screw the NASA pork barrel

    Go spacex!

    If only Nasa could deliver space exploration as well as it delivers Pork.

    1. Michael Overton

      I'd agree with you, if it wasn't for the fact that congress demanded this design. NASA held off as long as possible hoping that they'd change their minds. Alas, there's no minds left in congress, so this money will be wasted. Blame congress for that, not NASA.

  11. JeffyPooh
    Pint

    Ah, excuse me...

    I like the pretty design. I hope it's loud. I hope it can carry huge payloads into orbit. I like NASA. But...

    The Shuttle Main Engines are relatively expensive because they were designed to be reused hundreds of times, as opposed to lasting just 120 seconds (single use) and being tossed into the sea. So this design uses the very expensive, endlessly-reusable Shuttle Main Engines and then tosses them into the sea?

    Can they add parachutes to the first stage?

  12. DryBones
    Boffin

    Absurd

    Evdently the notion of using the RS-68A engines that the Delta IV uses has been abandoned in favor of jobs. It's only got 95% fewer parts (less parts = fewer points of failure, less machining), generate 140% as much thrust as an SSME (3 RS-68A @ 2.1M lb outmuscle 5 SSME @ 2.0M lb), and would give huge economies of scale for both NASA and Delta to be buying them. Also, that's another 6 tons of payload capacity from not hauling 2 SSME...

    Of course cryogenic engines require a labyrinthine seal and so consume absurd amounts of helium when fueled to keep 'em separated, which drives costs up. RD-170s would be nice, purge with nitrogen and all. Oh wait, Russians, danger, danger.

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Thumb Up

      @DryBones

      You forgot that the "J-2X" is about a 90% RS-68 (but with *special* man rating source) and now they appear to be talking about an *expendable* SSME (RS25e).

      It's interesting to speculate if NASA *had* considered the RS68A man-ratable would it have been flying by now?

      The Aerospace Corp reckoned it would mostly take a backup hydraulics system but with no SRB's needed for Ares 1 they projected a $6.8Bn bill from ATK to re-start SRB production, killing any cost advantages.

      Of course if NASA ditched solids entirely that re-start cost would go away entirely.

      I note that the *suggested* Merlin 2 thrust level is 1.7M lb, just about 1/2 that of an SRB. Merlin 1d's have an Isp about 26 secs higher (274 Vs 248) of SRB's. *if* that could be preserved by Merlin2 that would make for an interesting entrant in the booster engine stakes.

  13. K. Adams
    Facepalm

    If they're going to (stupidly) pass on SpaceX, why not just build...

    ... an up-rated Saturn V, then?

    They were heavy, reliable workhorses that also, like Musk's kit, had kerosene-based first stages.

    I'm sure the blueprints can still be found at Boeing, stuffed in a filing cabinet (or two) somewhere.

    "New designs, new materials, [and] new technologies" aren't necessarily the best way to go about things, especially when it involves strapping your arse to the top of a large container carrying a couple million kilograms of rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen.

    Keep it simple; use what works. Musk (and by extension, SpaceX) gets this. The Big Players don't...

    1. Lance 3

      They should have just de-mothballed the Saturn V design, used it and then started to make changes. Essentially that is what they are doing now, use what they know works and make changes later but with other designs. A Saturn V design has to be cheaper than this proposed solution.

    2. annodomini2
      FAIL

      Tooling

      The Saturn V tooling will have been scrapped years ago, while they appear to have let most of the workers go, the Shuttle tooling is probably still sat around.

      This would be cheaper than having to re-tool to build the Saturn V Update.

      1. K. Adams

        Adaptation

        Well, a not insignificant portion of Apollo's tooling was adapted to work with the Shuttle, so one could presume that doing the same thing in reverse would also work.

        Besides, just because we would be using the Saturn V blueprints as a starting-point, doesn't mean we would end up with a 1969-era Saturn V in the end.

        The C-130J SuperHercules, for example, is designated as a "C-130" series cargo plane by the manufacturer (Lockheed Martin) and the US Department of Defense, but is structurally and mechanically quite a different animal from its earlier brethren, despite its similar outward appearance and being based on the design of its immediate predecessors.

        I can already think of a couple things I would do to "modernise" the Saturn V. For starters, I would replace the venerable F-1 first stage engines with enhanced RD-180s. I would also try to find a way to use some of the kerosene fuel to provide pressure to operate the engines' gimball actuators, eliminating the need for separate (and payload-weight-consuming) hydraulic fluid tankage.

        1. K. Adams
          Facepalm

          Correction: RD-170, not RD-180

          Er... That should have been RD-170, not RD-180. Hit the wrong digit there...

          The RD-170 is the 4-chamber version, w/ 7.55 meganewtons thrust at ground level. The RD-180 is the 2-chamber version, w/ 3.83 meganewtons thrust at ground level.

          For comparison, the Saturn V F-1 engine is a single-chambered unit, and produced about 6.75 meganewtons thrust at launch.

  14. John Sanders
    Unhappy

    This makes me

    A very sad panda...

  15. Beachrider

    SLS isn't news...

    The plan for SLS has been available for months. It does use the SRBs because they give tremendous lift for their cost. SRBs have not given any trouble in Shuttle service, either. SRBs were always scary in that one cannot shut-them-off, though. The SLS SRBs are substantially larger than Shuttle SRBs, though.

    The central LOX rocket array is quite different from the Shuttle. Theoretically, a similar LOX was to be used on Ares V, but none of them were ever built. Given the place where these rockets would be discarded, it is hard to imagine how they would be recovered for reuse. SLS is all about leaving Earth orbit and getting to deep space.

    J2X is 50% wider than the Apollo J2 and weighs twice as much. It is clearly derived from J2, but it isn't a warmed-over J2.

    In short, SLS found it cheaper to expand and adapt technology from Apollo, Shuttle, Proton, etc. than to deploy completely new technology to meet its 2015 timeline. Research continues on Ion-Rockets (two unmanned missions have already been using them for years) and other advanced technology. It just won't be ready by 2015.

    FWIW Ares V was never a man-rated system and Ares IV was about going to the Moon, so they clearly weren't going to satisfy this Mars-mission project-track to which SLS is being assigned.

    I wish SpaceX well, but they have their plate full with COTS right now. COTS is funding the overwhelming percentage of SpaceX activity. SpaceX needs to make profits from its already-busy schedule over the next 3-5 years.

    1. Vaughan 1

      "SRBs have not given any trouble in Shuttle service, either" Ummmm, are you forgetting Challenger?

  16. Mike Powers

    Reusable rockets are like reusable beer cans

    And no, I don't mean "recycling", I mean "wash out the can and fill it back up with beer and crimp on a new top".

  17. David 164

    The article fail to tell a key peace of the story.

    NASA did not have a choice about building the SLS, it did not even have much of a choice about what engines and components that craft use. It even forbids NASA from holding a competitive tendering process, by way of mandating which components NASA were allowed to use, which eliminated all competition from winning the contract.

    The US senate created a law which mandated that NASA builds the SLS. It also declared that the engines and components of the SLS must be derived or adapted directly from the Shuttle and Apollo programmes. NASA has no choice but to design the vehicle it has design or break the law.

    1. DryBones
      Facepalm

      Oink Oink

      I believe the RS-68 is SSME-derived. What's the problem here? Yep.

  18. Simon Rockman

    Still smaller than Energia

  19. Wombling_Free
    Facepalm

    Throw it away! Throw it away!

    Sorry, did I read that right, throwing away SMEs?

    Apart from the idea of throwing away reusable engines, why aren't they putting money into alternative SSTO tech, like the DCX-Clipper or the X33? YES I KNOW they had problems, but so did the bloody Apollo CM and the Shuttle, and they got solved!

    Why is humanity suddenly so scared of innovation or engineering? Are we afraid Electric Sky-Daddy Baby J'eeeezus will slap us for blasphemy?

    NASA - We put men on the moon, once; now we piss money up against the wall!

    1. Winkypop Silver badge
      FAIL

      When you have invisible friends...

      Like: Electric Sky-Daddy Baby J'eeeezus...

      You don't need science nor innovation.

    2. Abremms

      in this case NASA is avoiding innovation by direct order of congress who said they had to use exsisting STS and/or Apollo kit so that congress could write thier corporate leash holders a nice check without inconveniencing them overmuch... i mean "create jobs" I always get the two confused.

  20. Eugene Goodrich
    Paris Hilton

    @Soyuz being proven technology

    [[Best of all, there's Soyuz, a proven system.]]

    Didn't a Soyuz crash on launch less than a month ago? And this is the same Soyuz system that within the last few years had two ballistic reentries, at least one of them traced to a failed section-separation explosive bolt*?

    IMO, the Soyuz has been proven Russian. We can absolutely learn from it, but I don't know if I'd want to depend on it much.

    (* Some of the Russians said there were too many women on board. More evidence the system needs work - we need spacecraft that are women-capable because... Mars Needs Women!)

  21. Wombling_Free
    Trollface

    Driving down the costs.

    "We have been driving down the costs on the Space Launch System and Orion contracts by adopting new ways of doing business and project hundreds of millions of dollars of savings each year,"

    Scene: the Orion CM

    Date: November 2019

    *bang*

    Cmdr: "WTF?"

    Pilot: "Ah, Mumbai, we have a problem"

    MSpc: (sniggering) "LOL"

    GC: "Hello, my name is Gupta, how are you today sir?"

    Pilot: "We seem to be venting something.... a gas of some sort?"

    GC: "Thank you sir, can I get you to read me your credit card number so I can transfer you to tech support"

    Cmdr: "Does anyone else smell burning?"

    GC: "Confirm you question is you are out of inkjet toner? Have you tried switching it off then on?"

    Pilot: "DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"

    exeunt omnes

  22. Wombling_Free
    Flame

    Sorry, this has got me riled up. That or the coffee.

    "That's not in the 70-130 tonne class required for deep space missions."

    My maths says 54t x 2 = 108t, which puts it slap bang in the middle of the lifting power needed for deep space missions.

    Does anyone else remember way back when we could launch two rockets and have them rendezvous in orbit fairly easily? Like Gemini in the 60's? You know, like LAST FRELLING CENTURY?

    Wasn't that the way we could get to Mars? (actually a better bet is Europa or Titan, pardon me for being an optimist!)

    It isn't looking good for the human race, is it?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Deep Space Exploration

      I think the reality is that while *we* are thirsty for space adventures the reality is that Mars exploration is pretty pointless and we do not have the tested technology for deep space exploration such as Europa or Titan.

      Having said that, I do not understand why VASIMR technology has not been deployed yet to the space station at least. It appears to have worked reliably in deep space missions and everything I read tells me it's ready for prime time.

      I think President Obama's mission to the asteroid belt would be much more interesting than a Mars mission anyway. It has the advantage of nod needing to lift off Mars (which is a *big* deal) and providing a source of possibly usable materials that are *not at the bottom of a gravity well*.

      1. annodomini2

        "I do not understand why VASIMR technology has not been deployed yet to the space station at least. It appears to have worked reliably in deep space missions and everything I read tells me it's ready for prime time."

        VASIMR hasn't been into space yet, other types of ION engines have. VASIMR has only been tested in hypobaric chambers.

        The flight engine was due to go up on the last shuttle launch, but it wasn't finished in time.

    2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Unhappy

      @Wombling_Free

      Well it's certainly not looking good for NASA's ability to design and *build* a rocket in any reasonable timescale.

      Or Senators to fund (what they *demanded* be built) to a level that will actually see it *fly*.

      It's looking like a triumph for cost+ and re-hiring programmes.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    SRBs have not given any trouble in Shuttle service, either.

    True.

    If you ignore the 'blow the whole stack to smithereens' incident, then yes, they've been perfect.

    Oh, and IIRC you have to harden the hell out of anything you strap them to because they shake the buggery out of it due to their uncontrolled burn. It only means you have to subtract a few tonnes from the payload though.

  24. Eddy Ito

    It's a darn good thing NASA doesn't build cars. After who would want to drive a hybrid electric that came with a flathead from a '44 jeep and 80 hp DC brushless motors that were hand wound by physics PhDs in a penthouse suite somewhere in Tribeca on each wheel that needed to be replaced with every tankful of gas. But think of the children's jobs it will create... or something like that.

  25. Kharkov
    FAIL

    So, to summarise...

    NASA, at the Senate's urging, will spend 10 billion dollars over the next 6 years (1 2/3rds of a billion dollars per year) on a rocket that lifts a payload not significantly larger than the competition (SpaceX's Falcon Heavy) which will debut about 4 years earlier (2013 is the year I've heard) and be available for commerical operations 3 years before the first SLS flies and is set to cost, at maximum, 125 million dollars a shot.

    Oh, and SLS won't be able to lift anything commercial until August 2022 because the first flights are spaced far apart and the first two are already booked on a useless propaganda exercise to go once around the moon and back. SLS-1 will send an empty (expensive) Orion capsule around the moon, Just like Apollo 8 in 68, only without the people. And then they'll do it again (with people this time) in 2021 just so they can say, "Hey, you know that thing we did FIFTY-THREE years ago? Well, now we can do it again!"

    1. rciafardone
      Pint

      I buy a drink...

      just cause i want to forget...

  26. Mike Flex

    "SRBs have not given any trouble in Shuttle service, either. "

    Er....

  27. Simon B
    WTF?

    Are they disposing of this in space to go with all the other shit dumped up there? I've got a matress, can they take it with them and dump that as well?

    1. Hayden Clark Silver badge
      Alert

      Pollution

      Yeah, what about all those exotic compounds and rare metals that we either burn up in the atmosphere or dump in the sea? Isn't that a) astoundingly wasteful of stuff that is running out and b) bad for the air/sea to be releasing oxides of stuff like cadmium, mercury, lead? Cadmium (particularly nasty) is used in high-power electronic components for thermal management, for example.

      1. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
        Boffin

        Cadmium???

        Can you expand on that? Cadmium-coated parts operating at high temperature are subject to embrittlement.

        1. Hayden Clark Silver badge

          Arg.. wrong stuff....

          I meant Beryllium oxide. Nasty, carcinogenic stuff.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Whoosh !!!

    It's not the sound of a mighty big rocket going up - rather it's the sound of 18 Billion or so being flushed down the toilet.

    Reality is that this rocket is not needed at all -

    there are no payloads and cargo to lift, there is no NASA funded programme to develop any space vehicles in the 70-130 tonnes range this rocket is being designed to lift;

    The only thing SLS is supposed to eventually launch is the MPCV, a remnant of the failed Constellation programme, that was only kept alive for political reasons; and this could easily go up on existing launchers;

    There are multiple commercial cargo carriers that have reliably lifted countless spacecraft eg Delta IV, Atlas V, even the brand new Space X's Falcon IX and soon to be developed 54 tonnes to LEO Falcon IX heavy;

    If there *was* any cargo to lift up; for the cost of 18 billion that is about to be wasted, one could have well over 7 thousand tonnes up in LEO on the Falcon IX heavy ...54 tonnes at a time and about 80-125 million per launch;

    Just about any conceivable exploration craft could be assembled in orbit using modular construction - just like the ISS;

    With the 18 billion nasa could have started building some actual exploration craft, or began researching new tech, possibly scramjets and other reusable spacecraft, or whatever else to that would 'push the boundaries' or *lower* the cost of access to space;

    This particular SLS debacle will end up duplicating existing launch capabilities at an enormous cost, while bringing absolutely nothing new or worthwhile to the table; with the likely cost overruns there is every chance other more useful and interesting nasa programmes will be scaled down or cancelled to feed this monster - stifling any real progress and innovation;

    Sad

    1. Kharkov
      Meh

      Is heavy lift needed or unneeded?

      I would dispute the 'rocket not needed' argument.

      Right now, there isn't a market for very heavy and/or very large satellites because there isn't a heavy-lift vehicle to take them up. 'If you build it, they will come' and all that.

      It's certainly a speculative rocket, in that it's being built with little idea if the commercial interests will follow but it would follow, in that case, that it needs to be as cheap and simple as possible in order to be viable.

      SLS is certainly not cheap. 10 billion dollars over the next 6 years when SpaceX will offer a rocket almost as good for ONE PERCENT (10 billion divided by 100 million) of that is a ridiculous travesty. If NASA wants to design a launcher, how about something that the Private Sector ISNT' working on and give it the same 10 billion-dollar budget?

      Single-Stage-To-Orbit or at least a Shuttle Mark 2 (a Two-Stage-To-Orbit vehicle) that was simpler, cheaper to run while being capable of lifting a reasonable commercial payload is something that no American aerospace company is seriously working on.

  29. dazl1212
    Mushroom

    They should just build something similar to the Orion spacecraft they designed in the 60s in outer space. Would be cheaper and get men to Mars in no time.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    come on

    Bush committed to Mars and new rockets because he was going into an election. Announce dreams and leave it to the next guy to have to pop the balloon and poop everyone's party because it's something they just cannot afford.

    Obama's clearly doing exactly the same... cannot go into a re-election campaign without a big promise of some big space project. Knock up a few artists impressions, talk about Mars, asteroid visits etc. - after the election, win or lose, it'll be canned and then some other similar project revived by the guy who canned it about a year before the next election.

    It's like Israeli/Palestine peace - something they have no intention of actually achieving, it's just a charade they go through every few years for political reasons.

    This rocket will never be built.

  31. James Hughes 1

    Gonna look pretty silly

    When this finally gets round to launching something worthwhile, and they find Musk already has his retirement home on Mars.

    I wonder at which point they will realise that SpaceX or similar is so far in advance in launch vehicles that they are going to look like fools.

  32. fLaMePrOoF
    Boffin

    NASA need to read more sci-fi...

    Shut down all ground launch space flight programmes and plough all resources into building a Space Lift.

  33. DayDragon
    Happy

    I've said it once...

    I'll say it again, small rockets carrying parts up to an automated 'Star-Trek' like spacevessel factory.

    Okay, so they have to build the spaceship factory first... small details.

  34. Gio Ciampa

    $10bn (or is it $18bn?)

    Should keep the US military going for a couple of weeks...

    1. David 164

      It could be 63 billion dollars according to Nasa internal document.

  35. Gary B.

    1) One reason NASA isn't just pulling out dusty blueprints for the Saturn V rocket stack is that they simply don't have them. In their infinite wisdom, they trashed the blueprints and all the people who worked on it are gone.

    2) NASA is getting tossed the same games they have since after the first moon landing. Congress can't make up their mind what they want to do with NASA, and keep them guessing with their on-again, off-again funding.

    3) Even the plans NASA came up with to get to the moon wasn't an ideal solution (single launch stack and lunar orbit rendezvous), but it was the only one they had at the time where they could have some certainty of it working within the time-frame they had, before funding got cut. Even during those days, NASA was always at risk of getting their funding cut. Really, it's amazing they're able to accomplish *anything* with the disrespect Congress gives them.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bank Bailout

    Shame it wasnt thought of to put a clause in the Bank bailout handout, that the banks had to contribute 3% of their gross profits from 2015 into the UK space program for the next 20yrs. Would have done something useful and helped prompt cutting edge science...

    Sorry nothing to do with NASA :)

  37. Solomon Grundy
    Meh

    Thought About This All Day

    And the whole thing is rubbish. I can't believe we gave our space program to the Commies and the only alternative we come up with is an incredible waste of reusable parts cannibalized from our past programs. Jesus. We suck.

    1. Gary B.
      Pint

      "Drink", because that's too true, and I'll need several...

  38. Zmodem

    they should modernize and reinvent the plane shuttle, with a mini reactor onboard and oversized xenon thrusters on the wings powered by the excess power of the reactor that is not being used to power new lightweight computer systems and LED monitors etc. using more titanium and toughened graphite in hull design

    it would be better to go back and forth to mars and the moonbase they plan, any other kind of craft is worthless, and will not be able to carry payloads to mars and set up a base. if you land on mars there would be no return

    1. Zmodem

      xenon has power from a few watts from a solar panel. nasa need todo the math if a thruster has 12-20kw on each wing

  39. MD Rackham

    SpaceX not really independent

    Yes, that "sprawling established rocket base" costs a lot to maintain, but companies like SpaceX rely on it for testing, launch support, etc. They typically pay a fee for access, but if NASA business dries up, SpaceX will need to maintain those wind tunnels/vacuum chambers/tracking facilities/etc. (or build new ones) at a considerably higher cost than what they now pay. They are greatly benefitting from the established infrastructure, much of it paid for in the 1960s.

    NASA isn't the enemy here. They are caught in the middle between a Congress that cares more about local jobs--and the votes they bring--than they do space, and an administration that desperately wants to zero out NASAs budget. The result is the muddle that is today's NASA programs.

  40. mhenriday
    FAIL

    «Provided Musk can actually do what he says -

    reliably deliver cargoes and then crews to the ISS, and fly the biggest rocket in the USA by 2014, all at very low cost ...» Lewis, I don't wish to pour scorn on yet another of your cultural heroes and your (to my mind simplistic) «government bad, private billionaires good» Weltanschauung, but is the concept of «vapour ware» entire unfamiliar to you ? Do you really believe that Mr Musk, in addition to talking the talk, will be able to walk the walk so early as 2014 - three years from today ? Rather unlikely, says I...

    Henri

    1. David 164

      Falcon 9 is already flying. Falcon Heavy is just sticking 3 of those together, and a bit of added plumbing linking the fuel tanks together. An a uprated Merlin engines, which have already been successfully tested on the ground.

      Space X have met every goal NASA has set for them. Which must really annoy the SLS lobby.

  41. Zmodem

    congress has nothing todo with it. the ISS is international, the next space shuttle could be.. with some xenon thrusters and the NASA size of a waste bin reactor in the hull flooring.. the shuttle could reach mars in a few weeks and be back at the end of the month.. building the next ISS2 in orbit of mars sending down better probes

    1. Greg J Preece

      I hate to tell you this

      But Birth of the Federation was a computer game.

    2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      WTF?

      @Zmodem

      "congress has nothing todo with it. the ISS is international, the next space shuttle could be.. with some xenon thrusters and the NASA size of a waste bin reactor in the hull flooring.. "

      The reactor is dustbin sized, the *radiators* are not. In space (a *very* good vacuum) they are *essential* to dump heat. BTW VASMIR would need 5 of those dustbins. An actual nuclear nuclear thermal rocket (NERVA) is about 25x larger than one of those dustbins. That disregards the little matter of radiation shielding, which is quite important for those who don't want to commit suicide.

      "the shuttle could reach mars in a few weeks and be back at the end of the month.. building the next ISS2 in orbit of mars sending down better probes"

      No it would not. You need to read some actual science.

      1. Zmodem

        you can cool a reactor down using its own poewr super cooling some water or real coolant like submarines do to get oxygen from the sea water and can stay submerged for 5 years if the crew didnt need food

        a shuttle can easily reach mars in a few weeks with 20kw of power to thrust. a satalite only takes only takes 6 months with minimum power from solar... having oversized xenon on wings that have more thrust for speed then just enough to move the craft, a shuttle could reach mars within a few week

        congress has nothing todo with NASA not making another shuttle because of budget.. research and developement could have international funding, then blue prints given to each nations space agency to build and run indepentent or united mission running 2 or 3 of they`re own shuttles

        1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
          Meh

          @Zmodem

          "you can cool a reactor down using its own poewr super cooling some water or real coolant like submarines do to get oxygen from the sea water and can stay submerged for 5 years if the crew didnt need food"

          Again this does not work in *space* as there is *no* medium to dump the heat to. In space the *only* way to get rid of heat is by a *radiation* (the "radiators" in heating systems are *convection* heat exchangers dumping heat to the surrounding air).

          Big power generators (in space) need *big* radiators.

          It's *simple* physics. Something you appear not to understand.

          "a shuttle can easily reach mars in a few weeks with 20kw of power to thrust. a satalite only takes only takes 6 months with minimum power from solar... having oversized xenon on wings that have more thrust for speed then just enough to move the craft, a shuttle could reach mars within a few week"

          Show maths or list references. The VASIMIR thruster is 10x bigger and Shuttle "Extended Duration Orbiter" lists a maximum of 28 days

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Duration_Orbiter

          "congress has nothing todo with NASA not making another shuttle because of budget.. "

          Congress has *everything* to do with what NASA can and cannot make (or rather have made under contract). The SLS is a designed to meet criteria *specifically* inserted in NASA's funding bill to require any solution to use Shuttle derived parts and lift a payload so big that *only* SRB's (of some kind) can meet it.

          "research and developement could have international funding, then blue prints given to each nations space agency to build and run indepentent or united mission running 2 or 3 of they`re own shuttles"

          A charmingly internationalist point of view. you might like to look up US ITAR rules. STS *sacrificed* operating costs for development costs. In short the *only* benefit of the architecture was the development budget. It cost an arm and a leg to operate and other partners *know* it.

          The SSME has some attractive features (I'd want the ones with fluid bearings and the Vehicle Health Monitoiring upgrade), as does the TPS technology. Any nation that *could* implement it from the plans alone either lacks the budget to do so or is smart enough to know what a bad idea it is in the first place. Everyone else lacks the supply chain for some (most?) key parts.

          SRB's make great weapon systems but other than wanting to acquire your own solid fuelled ICBM force (and they are over sized for that application) they are neither particularly cheap to operate or build. Apparently Shuttle SRB's internal design makes them unsuitable for long term vertical storage in any case.

          The first vibration isolation mountings *ever* designed for spacecraft mounting were done under USAF contract so satellites launched on converted ICBM stage would not be shaken to bits. This is an issue common to *all* solid fueled boosters as the Ares 1X flight found.

          Keep this level of ignorance up and people will think you're a troll.

          1. Zmodem

            NASA can increase the size of ion, and use nuclear power, and not xenon http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/spacecraft/index_prt.htm

            and still, if you have a self powering dynamo with enough RPM on the electric motor, a waste bin size dynamo will produce 60kw. and the greenest power generation that exists, use a lithium charged on earth or by solar to start up the dynamo and produce power to power the onboard systems and electric motor

            if you put a electric motor on your domestic wind dynamo, the electric company will be paying you £400 a month for constant 3kw back to the grid

            congress funds NASA, but it has nothing todo with the next space craft NASA builds, if NASA wants to reach mars, there is no point in going in a tincan with a 1 off mission in todays world, the technology of today can do alot more with the right funding, and a country cannot go deep space alone unless its a matter of pride

  42. Zmodem

    +there is the option of self powering dynamo`s that can use its own power using a electric motor to turn the dynamo after an initial charge, that can generate a constant power supply,, and a whole wind farm with a self powering dynamo the size of a house every hour

    1. Aaron Em

      Man

      I wish I could sit home and smoke pot and babble on the Internet all day. Enjoy it while it lasts, you'll be working for a living like the rest of us soon enough.

  43. Beachrider

    Challenger and SRBs

    Clearly there was an 'O-ring' failure in the right SRB. The right SRB didn't explode or break up. It did dump tremendous heat onto the Liquid Rocket components (including the main liquid engines on the shuttle-itself) which eventually led to the Liquid Tank losing integrity and exploding.

    This wasn't cause to abandon SRBs. It was cause to question putting the lander on the side of the rocket-stack. SLS now has more heat-tolerance in the liquid-rocket mechanism, as well.

    A lot of people in the Space business still put their bottom dollar into SRB technology, where it is most effective, at initial launch. It is not useful in maneuvering, because it cannot be turned-off.

    The Challenger SRB did its worst-case scenario on Challenger. SLS is all about separating/insulating the raw lifting power of SRB from the maneuverability and flexibility of Liquid Rockets, partially in initial-lift, and completely after orbit has been attained.

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