Posted on 02/21/2018 10:03:25 AM PST by Red Badger
NASA's latest tower for launching rockets has a little bit of a lean, which means it may be able to launch just a single rocket. The cost of this tower boondoggle? Almost $1 billion.
The tower in question is the Mobile Launcher designed for NASA’s upcoming Space Launch System, which would become the world’s most powerful rocket once completed in a few years. The tower is supposed to keep the rocket stable and upright on the platform during a launch. The system was built for NASA’s now-defunct Ares I rocket and later repurposed for the SLS.
The Mobile Launcher is a behemoth piece of equipment, standing nearly 400 feet tall and weighing more than 10 million pounds. It holds miles of cables, tubes, and pipes to ensure the SLS can remain operational on the launch pad. Building such a structure is a challenging task, which is why it cost approximately $912 million.
The sheer size and complexity may also be the cause of the difficulties the Mobile Launcher is currently facing. According to a report from NASASpaceflight.com, the launch tower is leaning slightly toward the North, which is in the direction of the rocket on the launchpad. The structure also seems to be twisting slightly.
While NASA seems to believe this lean is not enough to require additional construction, it will likely mean that the Mobile Launcher won’t be used for more than one or two launches. If the agency wants to launch more than a few SLS rockets over the next few decades, it will likely have to build a brand new launcher.
This isn’t entirely a bad thing, though. NASA had previously been considering building a second launcher anyway to accommodate the SLS Exploration Upper Stage, the larger version of the rocket’s second stage designed to send payloads deeper into the solar system. Because the Exploration Upper Stage is much larger than the standard upper stage, it would require either significant updates to the existing Mobile Launcher or a brand new one.
The Exploration Upper Stage is scheduled to be used on the second flight of the SLS, which means that even if the leaning Mobile Launcher is structurally sound enough to launch multiple rockets, it may be retired after the first one anyway. After all, there was a strong argument in favor of building a new Mobile Launcher even before the old one started bending.
Source: NASASpaceflight.com
I think things like Space X have made much of the function of NASA obsolete.
Private enterprise does pretty much everything better than the Government does. It’s best to leave the government to things that only have a government solution. Space exploration used to, but not any more. Time for them to bow out of the “small stuff”.
Couldn’t they just shim up one or two of the legs? There are probably some surplus copies of What Happened that they could shove under there...
At the rate they’re proceeding, the MLP may NEVER see a launch. Pretty sad. I worked the shuttle for 36 years and now we’re payin’ the rooskies. Sad dang day.
While NASA seems to believe this lean is not enough to require additional construction, it will likely mean that the Mobile Launcher won’t be used for more than one or two launches.
$912 million dollars. Apparently use of the mysterious Ancient Egyptian technology called a “plumb-bob” has been lost.
I am sure that there will be a $1.5 billion program to straighten it up, just as soon as the appropriation can be spread out across the required number of congressional districts.
Thanks to the muslim outreach program at NASA, it probably points to Mecca.
N ever A S traight A nswer. What do you expect?
We could turn it into a tourist attraction.....it is Florida, after all.................
“Couldn’t they just shim up one or two of the legs? There are probably some surplus copies of What Happened that they could shove under there...”
Now that’s funny.
The NASA launcher has Peyronies disease.
10 million pounds. Built on a swamp. What could go wrong?
LOL!.........................
“plumb-bob”
The “plumb” in “plumb-bob” comes from the fact that such tools were originally made of lead (Latin: plumbum, French: plomb). The adjective “plumb” developed by extension, as did the noun “aplomb,” from the notion of “standing upright.”
so where does the “bob” in “plumb-bob” come from?
A bob is the weight on the end of a pendulum found most commonly, but not exclusively, in pendulum clocks.
The Leaning Tower of Billion.
Good gawd!! The government is the biggest parasite on the American people!
SpaceX could have built that in half the time for a quarter of the money
AND IT WOULD BE STRAIGHT.................
The Leaning Tower of NASA...................
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