15 thoughts on “Progress On The Senate Launch System”
From the article:
“You really don’t have the tools and the resources in one place anywhere else in the world,” said Justin Littell, a mechanical engineer with the welding group at the Marshall Center. “The work that we do here is exciting and I get to work with a great team. It’s amazing.”
I bet SpaceX could throw something together, and develop and launch a SLS-class vehicle for less than they’ll burn on SLS development over the next three years (perhaps the next two years).
>”Turning up the heat…”
That’s safety progress over the 20th century version of the SLS.
What’s wrong with the headline? Well, the unit being fabricated is for the Delta IV, not the SLS for starters.
I bet SpaceX could throw something together, and develop and launch a SLS-class vehicle for less than they’ll burn on SLS development over the next three years (perhaps the next two years).
SpaceX could probably do it for less than NASA has spend on creating PowerPoint briefings related to the SLS.
The headline should read…
“How many guys sitting around looking at monitors does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”
Have you noticed that the SpaceX control center, for a one time cost mostly to impress the guests I imagine, has rows of computer stations, each with 3 monitors, for dozens of people… but when they actually do flight operations they usually only have four or five people there… and I bet that’s for redundancy.
“Turning up the heat” was pretty clever given the subject of friction stir welding, but given the 70 ton payload of the SLS and the Delta launchable weight of Orion, couldn’t they stick weld an SLS/Orion adapter ring out of mild steel plate and I-beams still have mass to spare?
I can’t wait for the next milestone: “Paint Bidding Process Documents for the SLS Completed”
I’ll take a stab and say that “SLS” is an abbreviation for “Senate Launch System”, not “Space Launch System”.
One would hope that any launch system being built by NASA would, by its very nature, be a launch system intended for Space…
I bet SpaceX could throw something together, and develop and launch a SLS-class vehicle …
How much could you orbit with a Falcon 7X9 design, 7 falcon 9 long cores with propellant cross feed and staging on the way up? I’m estimating in excess of 100 tons.
SELLING THE SIZZLE TO BRING HOME THE BACON
You asked for a headline.
Geez so much advertising for a docking ring for an interstage? They must really be getting desperate over there.
But hey perhaps Delta-IV will get more flights this way. With any luck they will cancel SLS.
Hey, it marks the first interstage ring for human spaceflight that NASA has built since Apollo! Despite all it’s technical complexity and brilliance, the Space Shuttle design team couldn’t figure out where to use such an interstage and the technology was almost lost. This new interstage uses the latest advances in computer aided design, manufacturing, and materials to join part A to part B better than two parts have ever been joined before. It’s a triumph of rocket science and stacking parts on top of each other.
“Turning up the heat” is nonsensical with friction stir welding.
I heard they were renaming it to the SSSLS actually. This time it will be even Safer, Simpler, and Sooner*.
(*) Results may vary.
So we are going to throw all that hardware, all those rocket engines, into the ocean to put a four man capsule into orbit? Almost two billion dollars per launch. To go where? Orbit the moon? Pick up some asteroid rocks? Remember Energia and Buran? Buran flew exactly once, suffered structural damage due to overheating on re-entry, and then sat in a hanger until the hanger fell down on top of it. This SLS is Energia II. And its not going anywhere.
To be fair, Energia also reached maturity right around the time of the collapse of the USSR. For a heavy lift launcher that pretty much requires billion dollar class payloads it’s not so helpful when the government and economy that was supporting it collapses and then undergoes an extended period of extreme change and turbulence.
However, the point is still quite apt. A heavy lift launcher is often the worst sort of combination. It’s both very expensive to operate and also serves only a tiny niche. It really only survives if there is an existing market and cargo. Worse yet, if it only sees a small amount of use then it becomes a huge waste due to the comparatively poor amortization of development costs over flight count.
Compare the SLS or Energia or even the Saturn V to the Falcon Heavy as an example. The FH will share a massive amount of hardware with the Falcon 9 so the development costs will be kept under control, and also it will benefit from any cost savings and efficiency improvements in the F9. More so, because it’s only a few steps up in payload from the F9 it can serve the multi-satellite delivery market quite well without introducing a high degree of risk. It’s comparatively easy to meet the needs of a small handful of GEO satellites vs. a dozen or more spacecraft, all on different construction schedules. It’s telling that the other heavy-ish lifters (Delta IV Heavy and Atlas V Heavy) tend to use the same common core booster design and nobody out there who is concerned about commercial launch services is contemplating building a seriously heavy lift rocket using a unique design.
There are lots of sane ways to progress toward heavy lift capability, SLS is not one of them.
From the article:
I bet SpaceX could throw something together, and develop and launch a SLS-class vehicle for less than they’ll burn on SLS development over the next three years (perhaps the next two years).
>”Turning up the heat…”
That’s safety progress over the 20th century version of the SLS.
What’s wrong with the headline? Well, the unit being fabricated is for the Delta IV, not the SLS for starters.
I bet SpaceX could throw something together, and develop and launch a SLS-class vehicle for less than they’ll burn on SLS development over the next three years (perhaps the next two years).
SpaceX could probably do it for less than NASA has spend on creating PowerPoint briefings related to the SLS.
The headline should read…
“How many guys sitting around looking at monitors does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”
Have you noticed that the SpaceX control center, for a one time cost mostly to impress the guests I imagine, has rows of computer stations, each with 3 monitors, for dozens of people… but when they actually do flight operations they usually only have four or five people there… and I bet that’s for redundancy.
“Turning up the heat” was pretty clever given the subject of friction stir welding, but given the 70 ton payload of the SLS and the Delta launchable weight of Orion, couldn’t they stick weld an SLS/Orion adapter ring out of mild steel plate and I-beams still have mass to spare?
I can’t wait for the next milestone: “Paint Bidding Process Documents for the SLS Completed”
I’ll take a stab and say that “SLS” is an abbreviation for “Senate Launch System”, not “Space Launch System”.
One would hope that any launch system being built by NASA would, by its very nature, be a launch system intended for Space…
How much could you orbit with a Falcon 7X9 design, 7 falcon 9 long cores with propellant cross feed and staging on the way up? I’m estimating in excess of 100 tons.
SELLING THE SIZZLE TO BRING HOME THE BACON
You asked for a headline.
Geez so much advertising for a docking ring for an interstage? They must really be getting desperate over there.
But hey perhaps Delta-IV will get more flights this way. With any luck they will cancel SLS.
Hey, it marks the first interstage ring for human spaceflight that NASA has built since Apollo! Despite all it’s technical complexity and brilliance, the Space Shuttle design team couldn’t figure out where to use such an interstage and the technology was almost lost. This new interstage uses the latest advances in computer aided design, manufacturing, and materials to join part A to part B better than two parts have ever been joined before. It’s a triumph of rocket science and stacking parts on top of each other.
“Turning up the heat” is nonsensical with friction stir welding.
I heard they were renaming it to the SSSLS actually. This time it will be even Safer, Simpler, and Sooner*.
(*) Results may vary.
So we are going to throw all that hardware, all those rocket engines, into the ocean to put a four man capsule into orbit? Almost two billion dollars per launch. To go where? Orbit the moon? Pick up some asteroid rocks? Remember Energia and Buran? Buran flew exactly once, suffered structural damage due to overheating on re-entry, and then sat in a hanger until the hanger fell down on top of it. This SLS is Energia II. And its not going anywhere.
To be fair, Energia also reached maturity right around the time of the collapse of the USSR. For a heavy lift launcher that pretty much requires billion dollar class payloads it’s not so helpful when the government and economy that was supporting it collapses and then undergoes an extended period of extreme change and turbulence.
However, the point is still quite apt. A heavy lift launcher is often the worst sort of combination. It’s both very expensive to operate and also serves only a tiny niche. It really only survives if there is an existing market and cargo. Worse yet, if it only sees a small amount of use then it becomes a huge waste due to the comparatively poor amortization of development costs over flight count.
Compare the SLS or Energia or even the Saturn V to the Falcon Heavy as an example. The FH will share a massive amount of hardware with the Falcon 9 so the development costs will be kept under control, and also it will benefit from any cost savings and efficiency improvements in the F9. More so, because it’s only a few steps up in payload from the F9 it can serve the multi-satellite delivery market quite well without introducing a high degree of risk. It’s comparatively easy to meet the needs of a small handful of GEO satellites vs. a dozen or more spacecraft, all on different construction schedules. It’s telling that the other heavy-ish lifters (Delta IV Heavy and Atlas V Heavy) tend to use the same common core booster design and nobody out there who is concerned about commercial launch services is contemplating building a seriously heavy lift rocket using a unique design.
There are lots of sane ways to progress toward heavy lift capability, SLS is not one of them.