NASA Briefs New Heavy Lift SLS Rocket

NASA SLS rocket

NASA to Hold Industry Day to Discuss Advanced Booster

The new Space Launch System’s (SLS) advanced rocket looks suspiciously Saturn 5 like. Perhaps NASA is hoping it will rekindle some of the support it had in the Apollo era. NASA will host an industry day at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. to share information on an upcoming NASA Research Announcement for the . Marshall is leading the design and development of the SLS on behalf of the agency. The new heavy-lift launch vehicle will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.

The 130-metric ton, evolved SLS vehicle will require an advanced booster with a significant increase in thrust over existing U.S. liquid or solid boosters. Its first full-scale test flight is set for 2017.

The new rocket has been mandated to make use of the Shuttle solid rocket boosters and perhaps even the RS-25D engines from the shuttle program. Sounding much like the canceled Constellation program one has to wonder why this program will be different.

Already there is talk of cost over runs. During the joint Senate-NASA presentation in September 2011 the SLS program has a projected development cost of $18 billion through 2017, with $10B for the SLS rocket, $6B for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and $2B for upgrades to the launch pad and other facilities at Kennedy Space Center. Representative Dana Rohrabacher said “There’s nothing new or innovative in this approach, especially its astronomical price tag, and that’s the real tragedy. Unfortunately, after a number of years, perhaps during development or just after a few flights like Saturn, budget pressures will bring this program to an end… this plan will suffer the same fate as Constellation: overpromised, under-delivered, and cancelled. Where will we be then?”

There are other alternatives to a totally new rocket including Delta IV, Atlas V and the Falcon. They are ready now or near ready so it is not clear why NASA needs to spend billions on a totally new rocket program when those billions could be used for other missions.

Hopefully at this Industry day the logic becomes clearer and we will learn more about this new program.