5 thoughts on “EM-1”

  1. So if they’ve spent $14 billion on the SLS so far, and a Falcon Heavy launch is only $90 million, they’ve spent enough to buy 150 Falcon Heavy launches.

    They could fly all their planned lunar missions within just the SLS budget’s attribution error (how much of this or that center’s funding should we put down as being SLS related?)

    So why not have the FH fly the missions, but put it down as being part of the SLS program under some excuse like testing SLS paint samples for erosion outside the Van Allen belt?

    At some point I think it becomes ethically wrong to launch a rocket because its designers and builders have basically grown up beside it, letting the constant presence of its smooth aluminum skin become a comforting part of their lives. NASA retirees can return to Michoud, trace their hands along it, happy that it’s still there for them, just like it was when they first took a job there.

    I don’t think that should change. We’re eventually going to travel into deep space, and someday an astronaut is going to land on a planet controlled by apes. The sight of the still unfinished SLS is how he’ll realize that the planet is Earth.

      1. How about paint the Greek letters alpha and omega on the opposing boosters and bury it in a cave with telepathic mutants who can then worship it?

        1. I like that too!

          It’s just frustrating that NASA has been at this since 2003’s loss of Columbia and the Vision for Space Exploration in 2005. Space X didn’t have a successful launch with the Falcon 1 until 2008, then moved on to the Falcon 9. They’ll be launching mission #70 next month.

          I think it was Alan Turing who said the Americans developed the first computer because they badly wanted a computer, whereas the British government wanted a well-managed development program for a computing machine.

          NASA may have a well-managed development program, but what they don’t have, after 15 years or so, is a flyable rocket.

    1. George, you made me laugh out loud, thank you!
      I also agree with Rand; that was mean, and I like it.

      However, too much has gone into SLS to let it fail. It really must fly, and I think it should be used to launch EM-1, and do so a lot sooner than next summer.

      All it will take is some paperwork to get SLS ready to fly. It could be ready in a few weeks if so, and all problems would thus be solved.

      What kind of paperwork? I’m not really sure what’s needed to rename Falcon Heavy to SpaceX Launch System (SLS) but it can’t be that hard to do, can it?

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