NASA weighing risk of adding crew to megarocket's first flight

Yahoo! News ^ | 2/24/17 | Marcia Dunn - AP

[NormsRevenge]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is weighing the risk of adding astronauts to the first flight of its new megarocket, designed to eventually send crews to Mars.

The space agency's human exploration chief said Friday that his boss and the Trump administration asked for the feasibility study. The objective is to see what it would take to speed up a manned mission; under the current plan, astronauts wouldn't climb aboard until 2021— at best.

The Space Launch System, known as SLS, will be the most powerful rocket when it flies.

[Farmer Dean]

How much room do you think there is on that thing?McCain,Graham,and Schumer must go to the head of the line.

[Cboldt]

-- If there isn't a reason to have people on it, I'm not sure I'd push it. --

That's the calculus in a nutshell. Sometimes "pushing it" is good, other times, not. If the team sees flight one as a "freebie," it takes some pressure off.

No flight is going to be perfectly safe.

[DoughtyOne]

I understood your comments in the first post, but I appreciate the follow-up with additional.

What you said does make sense.

The test pilot comment was a pretty good point too.

[DoughtyOne]

Yes, I agree that none will be perfectly safe.

[tet68]

In a vehicle with a million parts even sending the
first one up empty is no guarantee for the second one.

Nothing is “safe”.

Still, I’d go, but they don’t send geezers into space.

[TonyM]

Fill it full of refugees.

[Truth29]

If you have never seen it, check out “October Sky” for an inspirational movie about rocketry and NASA.

[Cboldt]

-- In a vehicle with a million parts even sending the first one up empty is no guarantee for the second one. --

Yep. Might have a case of beginner's luck.

[SkyDancer]

What crew? Rocket goes straight up, pops a chute and lands. Crew? What crew?

[cyclotic]

October Sky is probably what got him started. Very inspirational story

[Celtic Conservative]

That rminds me of what I used to call the race to the moon: America’s captured German scientists Vs.The Soviet Union’s captured German scientists.

CC

[rfp1234]

I think Charles Manson is still technically alive.

[PAR35]

NASA began to fall apart when the OSI persecuted the former project director of the Saturn V project after his retirement.

Everyone ever associated with the OSI should be stripped of their citizenship and deported.

[Celtic Conservative]

Dr. Von Braun?

CC

[AnotherUnixGeek]

So what they are saying is there are no ballsy astronauts like yesteryear only snowflaknaunts

There were two unmanned Apollo test flights before anyone climbed on top of the Saturn V booster. I'd be very surprised if there weren't several unmanned test flights with this new rocket before they try sending people up.

[PAR35]

Nope.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/03/us/arthur-rudolph-89-developer-of-rocket-in-first-apollo-flight.html

Rocket engines were his specialty. - the A-4 (V-2), a rocket powered car in the 30s, Saturn V....

[5th MEB]

I would go, even if something went FUBAR it would be one hell of an exit.
Probably wouldn’t even feel it.