Ars: How much will SLS and Orion cost to fly? Finally some answers

[e-FTW]

How much will SLS and Orion cost to fly? Finally some answers
"
“My top number for Orion, SLS, and the ground systems that support it is $2 billion or less,” Hill told Ars. “I mean that’s my real ultimate goal. We were running at about three-plus, 3.6 billion [dollars] during the latter days of space shuttle. Of course, there again, we were flying six or seven missions. I think we’re actually going to have to get to less than that.”

Ars has learned that the agency’s ultimate goal for annual production and operations costs is about $1.5 billion.
"

 

[Grendal]

SLS and Orion is already way past those numbers. Anyone in the industry is well aware that SLS and Orion are just jobs programs. It's very likely that the overall program is dropped in a few years when the new administration gets into office. Obama's administration killed the Constellation program. SLS and Orion are fallout from that cancellation. The moment FH flies once or twice and definitely after the Red Dragon mission happens then it will be too obvious that SLS/Orion is a black hole of taxpayer money.

 

[Grendal]

SLS is delayed again.

Senior official: NASA will delay first flight of new SLS rocket until 2019

SLS is a massive government boondoggle. It is essentially a jobs program of epic proportions and has been for more than 15 years if you count Constellation.

 

[Nikxice]

SLS is delayed again.

Senior official: NASA will delay first flight of new SLS rocket until 2019

SLS is a massive government boondoggle. It is essentially a jobs program of epic proportions and has been for more than 15 years if you count Constellation.

Seems even NASA sees the logic in saving a billion dollars by leaning towards their original plan of flying EM-1 without a crew. That rational appears even stronger now that SLS/Orion is delayed, apparently not competing with SpaceX for lunar flyby bragging rights in late 2018.

 

[macpacheco]

NASA is doing SLS because congress mandates it. The pro SLS people in NASA are the most yes people in NASA.
Want SLS cancelled ? make noise with your house representative and federal senators. Specially if you live in Alabama, whine to Senator Shelby.
SLS makes no sense. Its a 100% expendable rocket that will cost billions per mission.
SpaceX will design and build a half a dozen ITS sets (1 booster, 1 tanker, 1 spaceship) for the cost of 6 SLS launches and enable thousands of missions. Instead of sending a dozen people to the moon with SLS, send 100 scientists/astronauts/technicians, 100 tons of cargo, and stay there for 2 weeks, doing an order of magnitude more science on the moon than every past mission combined, with ITS. What's the need for an ISS, when the ITS spaceship can be your temporary space station.

 

[Grendal]

SLS is gonna get delayed again. There was an accident which damaged a LOX tank.

Twitter

NASA Marshall confirms that an SLS LOX qualification tank dome was damaged in an incident last week at Michoud. Investigations underway.

 

[Doug_G]

That picture is of a satellite incident from years ago.

 

[Grendal]

That picture is of a satellite incident from years ago.

Thanks for the correction. Someone posted that picture in a thread and I grabbed it not knowing its origins. The ULA incident has been verified from a number of authentic sources though.

And here's an article on it:
Space Launch System test hardware damaged in incident

 

[Mike1080i]

I haven't seen any photos of the now ex-LOX tank dome, but here's a shot of what one would normally look like.

 

[bxr140]

That picture is of a satellite incident from years ago.

Yup. NOAA-19 - Wikipedia

 

[Grendal]

I'll post this here even though it isn't specifically connected to the topic.

A few months back the White House (Trump) decided he wanted to see a major achievement occur under his watch. So the Executive Branch wanted to push up the SLS timetable and put astronauts on the EM-1 unmanned cislunar test flight. Here's a story on that:

NASA to study launching astronauts on first SLS mission - SpaceNews.com

There was a news conference today where it was decided that EM-1 could carry astronauts feasibly but it would cost more to do so than the government is willing to spend. They also said the unmanned flight will be delayed until 2019.

NASA will not put a crew on EM-1, cites cost as main reason | NASASpaceFlight.com