Posted on 09/01/2014 1:34:40 PM PDT by lbryce
NASA has worked on some inspiring interplanetary projects in the last few years, but few have been as ambitious as the simply-named Space Launch System, a new rocket that will be the largest ever built at 384 feet tall, surpassing even the mighty Saturn V (363 feet), the rocket that took humanity to the moon. It will also be more powerful, with 20 percent more thrust using liquid hydrogen and oxygen as fuel. Last week, NASA announced that the Space Launch System, SLS for short, is on track to perform its first unmanned test launch in 2018. The larger goal is to carry humans into orbit around an asteroid, and then to Mars by the 2030s. After that, NASA says the rocket could be used to reach Saturn and Jupiter.
At the moment, even getting off the ground would be progress: since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, NASA has been left without any domestic capability to launch American astronauts into space; instead it has been purchasing rides for them aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft at high cost. While SpaceX and other private companies are working furiously to provide their own human passenger spacecraft for travel into Earth's orbit, NASA wants to go even further. The agency has begun testing models of the SLS and initial construction of some the major components. It says the first test flight will have an initial cost of $7 billion. The SLS will also be reusing some leftover parts from the inventory of the retired Space Shuttle, including its engines.
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
On a happier note, this is great news for America's long term benefit, national interest merely only just as it relates to not having to pay the $60 million fee for every astronaut ferried to the space station by the Russkies.
NASA, I salute your dedication in your efforts to keeping the US in the forefront of space technology in the national interest. At least there's one Govt. organization not turning on it s own people, doing what it was designed to accomplish.
Are the MUSLIMS building it??? Remember when Obama came in he said that NASA’s main job was to make Muslims feel PROUD of themselves!!! OMG.
There could be 3 private companies putting people into space before NASA does.
“At the moment, even getting off the ground would be progress: since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, NASA has been left without any domestic capability to launch American astronauts into space; instead it has been purchasing rides for them aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft at high cost. “
Another example of the decline of America under Obama.
And thanks to the true “reset”, Russian officials have been snarking that US astronauts need to use a “trampoline” to get into space.
Doesn’t the phrase “is building” mean that the actual building of the rocket is in progress? I didn’t catch that from the article, other than testing of pre-existing components. Never mind the fact that the original intent of the space shuttle was to get NASA away from using single-use rockets and towards reusable space vehicles.
Still using monomethyl hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide?
Very hazardous oxidizer. Breathing vapors can form nitric acid in lungs.
First test flight in 5 years for $7 billion? Bull. Maybe by 2022 at a cost of $15 billion. If you want to get back into space then go to SpaceX or some other private company. They will do it quicker, faster, and cheaper than NASA.
This story likely intended to troll for votes in FL.
I’m curious. Where do we get the billions in funds for this? We are totally broke.
To infinity and beyond ping.
...a new rocket that will be the largest ever built at 384 feet tall, surpassing even the mighty Saturn V (363 feet), the rocket that took humanity to the moon. It will also be more powerful, with 20 percent more thrust using liquid hydrogen and oxygen as fuel...The additional thrust will come *entirely* from those solid rocket boosters -- those main engines are 100% cryofueled, but this design is an iteration of the Space Shuttle, not Apollo. The initial 70-tons-to-orbit version will use two SRBs; the Saturn V holds the record, at 130 tons (260,000 lb sez wiki-wacky), something that won't be matched until two more SRBs are added to this new proposed launch system. And remember, the Saturn V was using cryo- oxygen to burn kerosene-like RP-1 fuel.
First test flight in 5 years for $7 billion? Bull. Maybe by 2022 at a cost of $15 billion.
....
Well, it really is about spending money, because it doesn’t have a mission (other than to spend money).
There have been test-stand burns of the main engine design, if memory serves. Boeing is building those. The SRBs are closely based on the STS’ SRBs.
The sad fact is, a vehicle using just the four SRBs for the first stage would duplicate, actually exceed, the capability of the finished system. The cryo system is along for the ride, just as it was (for the most part) with the Shuttle.
Putting a fifth SRB in the center in order to play the role of the second stage, pushing the remaining 100% cryo (much smaller, as they were in the Apollo launch system) would put us on the Moon as early as getting them constructed, no joke. The difference is, the ride would be more like Mercury than Apollo.
An easlier vrsion of this story mentioned it will carry the new capsule. However the capsule will have pre-sabotaged heat shield - holes will be punched in the tiles to simulate what would happen when and if micrometorites hit it.
Natually, the capsule will fail and that will be the end of that.
Correcto-mundo!
The problem has been that every president hits the reset: (Mars-Yes; Mars-No/Low Earth orbit-Yes; LEO-No/Mars Yes; Both-Yes).
Every time the reset gets pushed, the design working its way to prototype->manufacturing gets cancelled; new specs get issued; new proposals submitted, evaluated, approved; new design gets underway, and BOOM->reset.
So, long story short, no follow on machinery ever gets deployed. Saves money, but the existing equipment degrades through use. The end result - nothing, but talk and videos.
Under President Bush, the replacement was under development — but the Demogogic Party attack dogs didn’t like the delays and just pulled the plug on the whole thing.
NASA is known for paper spacecraft.
/johnny
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