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NASA says it's committed to Boeing-built rocket after considering alternatives
cnn ^ | 03/26/2019 | Jackie Wattles

Posted on 03/26/2019 9:14:30 PM PDT by BenLurkin

Now, government officials are dialing up the pressure on Boeing to speed up development of the long-overdue rocket, called Space Launch System or SLS. The space agency contracted Boeing in 2012 to build SLS's core components.

Bridenstine's remarks came after US Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday at a National Space Council meeting in Alabama that news of more hangups with the SLS program were a "great disappointment," and the current timeline is "just not good enough."

Boeing began building SLS's core stage, the backbone of the rocket, about seven years ago. Officials said at the time that SLS would be ready to fly in December 2017. But that target was eventually pushed back to at least mid-2020.

An oversight report published five months ago blasted "Boeing's poor performance" and said cost overruns are expected to double the company's expenses, to at least $8.9 billion, by 2022. NASA had already spent at least $11.9 billion on SLS.

Bridenstine said after studying the issue for two weeks, NASA found none of the alternatives offered a way to keep the Orion launch on time and on budget. But he said commercial rockets could be used as an alternative to SLS at some point in the future.

Threatening to abandon SLS in favor of alternatives is a new course of action for government officials. Laura Forczyk, a consultant and founder of research firm Astralytical, said there is little appetite among politicians to follow through on the threats, but they may give Boeing a necessary kick in the pants.

"Boeing has had no motivation to get things done," Forczyk told CNN Business. "This gives them an incentive to speed up their timeline."

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: alabama; astralytical; boeing; boondoggle; built; deepspacegateway; deepstategateway; elonmusk; falcon9; falconheavy; indiana; jimbridenstine; lauraforczyk; mikepence; nasa; orion; porkbarrel; richardshelby; sls; spacex

1 posted on 03/26/2019 9:14:31 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Is Boeing doing the software to?


2 posted on 03/26/2019 9:18:55 PM PDT by JoSixChip (Trump stands alone.)
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To: BenLurkin

Before “diversity,” America put a man on the Moon. Since “diversity,” can’t even build a rocket.


3 posted on 03/26/2019 9:36:36 PM PDT by Cowboy Bob ("Other People's Money" = The life blood of Liberalism)
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To: JoSixChip

737 max attitude control? ;-)


4 posted on 03/26/2019 9:37:30 PM PDT by rktman ( #My2ndAmend! ----- Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: BenLurkin

“Bridenstine’s remarks came after US Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday at a National Space Council meeting in Alabama...”

Weird coincidence that former D/current R Senator Richard Shelby is from Alabama, and is the one who kept putting up politically (and otherwise un-)motivated roadblocks to SpaceX.


5 posted on 03/26/2019 9:42:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie)
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To: Cowboy Bob

Diversity has nothing to do with it. NASA is the one technical institute insusceptible to learning. MSFC is doing on SLS exactly what JSC did on ISS. Unfortunately, it is more profitable for Boeing to let the customer have whatever they ask for, when it’s a cost plus program.

The NappyOne


6 posted on 03/26/2019 9:43:23 PM PDT by NappyOne
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To: JoSixChip

If they do, it will be a rocket powered boring machine.


7 posted on 03/26/2019 9:56:04 PM PDT by Pelham (Secure Voter ID. Mexico has it, because unlike us they take voting seriously)
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To: BenLurkin

The SLS is essentially made out of Space Shuttle parts. It would take them 50 years if they had to do it by scratch.


8 posted on 03/26/2019 11:41:44 PM PDT by Moonman62 (Facts are racist.)
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To: Cowboy Bob

China has overtaken the U.S. in technology, especially military technology.

Does anyone see a problem with the fact that China now is even building our missiles?


9 posted on 03/27/2019 12:38:40 AM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: JoSixChip; BenLurkin

Microsoft and Adobe teamed up for that part.


10 posted on 03/27/2019 1:25:19 AM PDT by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: BenLurkin

And SpaceX is going to send humans to space.


11 posted on 03/27/2019 2:31:15 AM PDT by wastedyears (The left would kill every single one of us and our families if they knew they could get away with it)
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To: JoSixChip

Is telling Boeing to “rush” really a good idea?

Isn’t that how they got into trouble in the first place?

My wife explains it best: “Dinner will be ready when its ready”. ;-)


12 posted on 03/27/2019 2:43:23 AM PDT by cgbg (Democracy dies in darkness when Bezos bans books.)
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To: BenLurkin
And this is the reason companies like Space X can build a better rocket faster and for 1/5 the price. Elon Musk essentially tells his engineers “this is what I want, a rocket with these capabilities, make it happen”. While for the SLS, you have a rocket that is designed by politicians, who want the various components built in their districts (regardless if that makes any sense) not to mention the arcane federal contract rules and the “diversity” push that requires the contractor to hire a certain number of transsexual Eskimos.
13 posted on 03/27/2019 3:05:14 AM PDT by apillar
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To: apillar

Bears repeating, i suspect despite his nuttiness Elon Musk will be remembered as one of the fathers of real space travel


14 posted on 03/27/2019 5:35:21 AM PDT by Manuel OKelley
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To: apillar

A lot like the Congressional committee that tried to design a horse and came up with a camel.


15 posted on 03/27/2019 5:53:09 AM PDT by Pecos (These are the times that try menÂ’s souls)
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To: apillar

Precisely! As Patton once said, “Don’t tell your men how to do it, tell them what to do and they will amaze you with their ingeuity!”

NASA is a creature of the overall bureaucracy, and as such, is no longer a “can-do engineering activity”. The rocket scientists who founded NASA are all gone and mostly buried, and their bureaucratic go-fers are in charge, and doing the politicians’ wishes.

I predict that the SLS will probably never get past preliminary flights. If it flies at all, it will be generations behind SpaceX.


16 posted on 03/27/2019 6:26:41 AM PDT by Redleg Duke (We live on a tax farm as free-range humans!)
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