Tag: Space Launch System
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Watchdogs issue warning about NASA’s SLS moon rocket plan, but Boeing CEO stays the course
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Space Launch System in flight. (NASA Illustration) The federal government’s watchdog agency says getting NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket off the ground is likely to take longer and cost more than the space agency says it will. Any issues that crop up in the months ahead could push the…
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NASA considers shifting a key test flight beyond the moon to commercial rockets
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Orion deep-space crew capsule with its European Service Module placed beneath it and an upper stage powering it out of Earth orbit. (NASA Illustration) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told a Senate hearing today that his agency is looking into an option to double up commercial launch vehicles in order to…
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NASA watchdogs blame SLS rocket snags on Boeing missteps and poor oversight
A structural test version of the intertank for NASA’s new deep-space rocket, the Space Launch System, arrives at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in March for testing aboard the barge Pegasus. The intertank is the second piece of structural hardware for the massive SLS core stage. (NASA Photo) NASA’s Space Launch System, the rocket that’s…
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Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg foresees busy commercial ‘ecosystem’ in Earth orbit
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg speaks at Northwestern University, with a model of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket standing in front of him. (Boeing via Facebook) Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg predicts that the number of space destinations will grow from one — the International Space Station — to 10 or 12 over the next couple of…
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2020 or bust? GAO watchdogs foresee further delays for orbital spaceships
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Orion capsule in flight. (NASA Illustration) The Government Accountability Office issued a downbeat report on NASA’s major space projects today, saying that cost and schedule performance has deteriorated over the past year. The full extent of the cost issues is unknown, primarily due to uncertainties surrounding the effort to build…
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Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg says that humans could get to Mars within a decade*
Politico’s Robert Albritton (left) chats with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg (right) during a space conference. (Politico Live via Facebook) Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg says it’s possible that humans will set foot on Mars in the next decade, and he’s convinced the first people will get there on a Boeing-built rocket. Muilenburg’s comments, made today during…
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NASA fires shuttle rocket engine to the max during test for Space Launch System
Exhaust billows out from a rocket test tower at NASA’s Stennis Space Center during a test firing of an RS-25 rocket engine. (NASA via YouTube) Like a “Spinal Tap” guitarist, NASA turned the dial up to 11 today on a souped-up rocket engine from the bygone space shuttle program. The 260-second engine firing at Stennis…
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NASA expects first Space Launch System flight to slip into 2020
Artist’s illustration of the Space Launch System on launch pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA The maiden unpiloted flight of NASA’s Space Launch System, a heavy-lift human-rated rocket and one of the agency’s core programs, will likely not be ready for takeoff until 2020, officials said recently. NASA officials until…
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NASA making steady progress on SLS mobile launch platform
The crew access arm for the Space Launch System mobile launch platform is pictured in a storage location near the Kennedy Space Center last week. Credit: Steven Young/Spaceflight Now Construction crews at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center are making steady progress outfitting the Space Launch System’s mobile platform with umbilical connections and access arms, and the…
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Systima gets a piece of the action for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Space Launch System in flight. (NASA Illustration) When NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket starts carrying astronauts beyond Earth orbit in the 2020s, it’ll also be carrying a key component built by Kirkland, Wash.-based Systima Technologies. Systima will be responsible for providing a 27.6-foot-wide, ring-shaped joint assembly that separates the…