We all know what it’s like when you make a new projectit always ends It took longer than you expected and sure cost more than you anticipated. The same goes for if you’re a federally funded space agency, like NASA exploring with its wildness over budget and delay Space launch system.
by NASA The new Space Launch System (SLS) is a big deal. IIt’s the rocket that will take us back to the Moon and one day to Mars. However, it was a project plagued by delays and skyrocketing costs. Now, a NASA report Inspector General Paul Martin discovered how the project was getting out of control.
According to Ar TechnicaSLS is now six years behind schedule and $6 billion over budget. It cost NASA so much to continue to develop the system that Ars Technica reports that out-of-control spending “could jeopardize plans to return to the Moon.”
In total, NASA is expected spends $93 billion on the Artemis . program from 2012 to 2025. Of that, $23.8 billion was spent on SLS, was developed from Space Shuttle technology that NASA updating.
However, this new means of creating rockets has brought all the way to space agency headaches. According to the report, NASA originally expected that use parts of the space shuttle will “lead to significant cost and schedule savings compared to developing new systems for SLS.”
This is simply not the case, though. Instead, NASA found that “the complexity of developing, updating, and integrating new systems with legacy components has proven to be far greater than anticipated.” As such, only five of the 16 engines needed for the SLS to date have been completed.
But it’s not just NASA technology working on that led to the spiral expense. The report also criticized the way NASA distributed its workload to the current assignment by contracting to perform the work with Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman. Ars Technica reports:
The fundamental difference is the method of contract, and Martin uses – albeit in bureaucratic terms – harsh language for Nasa’s choice of contract plus cost. The cost-plus contracts are expected to be used in advanced technology and testing programs, such as the construction of the James Webb Space Telescope. But in this case, Aerojet is modifying engines that have flown several times in the space shuttle program; and Northrop modified the same used booster multiple times.
The whole thing’S an epic headache for NASAespecially when it is currently being compared to the private space agencies that are making their racquets for a fraction of the price.
NASA is targeting a price tag of more than $70 million per engine needed for the Space Launch System. In contrast, Blue Origin produces engines of similar capacity and size for less than $20 million. In Texas, SpaceX is aiming for an even cheaper rocket engine with its Raptor, which could one day cost less than $1 million per engine.
