Discussion The space launch system launch date is for the year after next

[richfororbit]

Hi,

I'm sure everybody knows, I recently read via NASA, about the space launch system being launched not until early 2019.

So this is the first rocket launch test. Originally planned for next year.

 

[N_Molson]

AFAIK those aren't fresh news, been around for 6 months or so.

We're Q4 2017 so Q1 2019 isn't a long time away at all, I've been waiting for that launch for 5 maybe 6 maybe 10 years (actually it was before the launch of New Horizons !), the program was cancelled and got a new name a couple of times so... I have good hope. :yes:

 

[richfororbit]

The point being now is, the program was a bit different then.

Hmm, I only read of the launch date last month or earlier this month via NASA. Well, its hopeful, I was a bit disappointed when the launch date was moved. Could mean the crewed mission will move a year further than planned.

It will build the Deep space gateway then?

 

[4throck]

One thing to keep track is if the date keeps slipping.
If it keeps being moved to "in two years time", it's not a good sign.

So keep on the lookout for hardware being built.
Specially for capsules with life support systems installed. They will need at least 2 (one as backup) for crewed flights.

I'm not being pessimistic, it's just that I'll believe it's going forward when I see actual finished hardware.

 

[DaveS]

One thing to keep track is if the date keeps slipping.
If it keeps being moved to "in two years time", it's not a good sign.

So keep on the lookout for hardware being built.
Specially for capsules with life support systems installed. They will need at least 2 (one as backup) for crewed flights.

I'm not being pessimistic, it's just that I'll believe it's going forward when I see actual finished hardware.

Flight hardware is being built and tested. All the EM-1 flight hardware has been fabricated, they just haven't been integrated yet. The EM-1 Core Stage is scheduled for completion next spring, around the same time as the Mobile Launcher at KSC.

And as far as Orion is concerned, there won't be any back-up capsules. Launch on Need (LoN) was strictly a shuttle thing, conceived in the wake of the Columbia accident in the event of fatal TPS damage. Then the stranded shuttle crew could wait for the rescue orbiter on the ISS. No such thing for Orion given its going beyond lunar orbit.

 

[barrygolden]

NASA is pushing these rockets back and back because it has only enough engines for about three flights and no new engine program. if they stretch these three flights over twenty years then they'll all get there retirements and not have done much. Job well done.
maybe a real goal to reach like the moon base is a real program not to build a rocket to nowhere

 

[Urwumpe]

NASA is pushing these rockets back and back because it has only enough engines for about three flights and no new engine program.

Sorry, but wrong, you missed a development there:

http://aviationweek.com/space/aerojet-rocketdyne-cranking-expendable-ssme

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/01/nasa-defends-restart-rs-25-production/

The RS-25E is expected to take over once the Shuttle-heritage hardware is gone.

 

[GLS]

It took less time to develop the shuttle from scratch in the 70s, than to remove the most complex part of that system, put a 5º segment in the solids (first fired in 2003) and change the ET, and add the Delta upper stage. :facepalm:

 

[Urwumpe]

Yes, but it took about twenty times the money NASA currently received for the SLS....

 

[N_Molson]

One thing to keep track is if the date keeps slipping.

Well I compare it to relative velocities. If time (t) passes at a factor of say 1, and that the date slipping ratio (dsr) is inferior to 1, its good. And while the actual calculation could be a bit complex, I'd say, as a wild guess, that dsr=0.75 . That's why I have good hope.

 

[richfororbit]

I don't think there is any reason to not be fine about the program. I'm not in the tech know, but the current government is supportive of the space program to going somewhere. It is believed that it will be Mars down the road. I imagine using that rocket in someway or that spacecraft.

Some have said, well it is just a rocket for getting crews into orbit, where to next is limited. It can get an orbital mission to Mars in the next fifteen years?

 

[N_Molson]

Say 20-25 to take the "slipping factor" into account :lol:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

SLS will fly once or twice, but by the time that it's considered "mature" by NASA, SpaceX and Blue Origin will have outstripped its launch capacity, for lower cost and higher flight rates.

 

[barrygolden]

yes you right I missed the new engine program. Their building 6 new engines for backups to SLS flight 4. At the current flight rate fight 4 will fly in 2030 so they have 12 years to build 6 engines. Well that's an improvement over the 10 years it took to rebuild the J2 engine for the Aries rocket. Somebody should reread the Ride report in which the US tax payer spent millions to produce.

 

[N_Molson]

*alarm* SLS-bashing thread *alarm*

 

[4throck]

Critical thinking is not bashing I think.

Bul let's hope for the best.

SLS, Orion and the lunar station are all connected, and they are the future of the ISS project.

 

[richfororbit]

Spacecraft I meant the MCPV, but yes that rocket will get a mission to Mars with one of those MPCV's? It would need to have a storage space and so on, crew module.

 

[N_Molson]

There are plans for that, I don't think nobody ever planned a mission to Mars with only a Command Module + Lander as only living space for the crew. Not since there have been long-duration missions on space stations.

 

[4throck]

I haven't seen any solid lander plans or hardware.
Only the Orion, service module(s) and habitation/station modules seem real so far.

 

[Urwumpe]

I haven't seen any solid lander plans or hardware.
Only the Orion, service module(s) and habitation/station modules seem real so far.

Yes - with which budget should NASA develop more? Stop funding 70% of the ISS for getting to the moon?