{"id":18119,"date":"2019-03-13T20:39:11","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T12:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-considers-shifting-a-key-test-flight-beyond-the-moon-to-commercial-rockets\/"},"modified":"2019-03-13T20:39:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T12:39:11","slug":"nasa-considers-shifting-a-key-test-flight-beyond-the-moon-to-commercial-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-considers-shifting-a-key-test-flight-beyond-the-moon-to-commercial-rockets\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA considers shifting a key test flight beyond the moon to commercial rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Orion
An artist\u2019s conception shows NASA\u2019s 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)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 keep a crucial test mission for its Orion spaceship and European-built service module on schedule for mid-2020.<\/p>\n

The shift would take NASA\u2019s own heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket, or SLS, out of the rotation for the uncrewed test flight around the moon, known as Exploration Mission 1 or EM-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly there are opportunities to utilize commercial capabilities to launch the Orion crew capsule and the European Service Module around the moon by June of 2020, which was our originally stated objective,\u201d Bridenstine told Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.<\/p>\n

Some of the SLS\u2019 critics (and defenders) might see the move as one more step toward canceling the multibillion-dollar, oft-delayed rocket development project. Bridenstine, however, insisted that the shift for EM-1 was part of a strategy for making sure a follow-up flight that would send astronauts around the moon, known as Exploration Mission 2 or EM-2, wouldn\u2019t face even further delays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to get back on track,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bridenstine said that NASA planners determined last week that the preparations for EM-1 wouldn\u2019t make the previously anticipated June 2020 launch date. In response, he asked mission teams to take a serious look at commercial options.<\/p>\n

The SLS is designed to be the most powerful rocket built since the Saturn V rocket that sent astronauts to the moon a half-century ago. Commercial heavy-lift rockets, such as SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy and United Launch Alliance\u2019s Delta 4 Heavy, aren\u2019t considered powerful enough to send the Orion crew capsule and its European-built attachment all the way around the moon.<\/p>\n

However, Bridenstine said it might be possible to use one rocket to put the two-element spaceship into Earth orbit, and a second rocket to send up a separate upper stage. The two payloads would then dock in Earth orbit, fire the rocket engine on the upper stage, and continue the trip around the moon and back.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/JimBridenstine\/status\/1105859576023445506<\/p>\n

That scenario isn\u2019t a slam-dunk. \u201cWe do not right now have the ability to dock the Orion crew capsule with anything in orbit,\u201d Bridenstine said, \u201cso between now and June of 2020 we would have to make that a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wicker noted that there wasn\u2019t much time between now and mid-2020, but Bridenstine said there might be time enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have amazing capabilities that exist right now that we can use off the shelf to accomplish this objective,\u201d the NASA administrator said.<\/p>\n

Bridenstine said the decision on whether to proceed with the shift could be made in the next couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery moment counts, because I want to be clear: NASA has a history of not meeting launch dates, and I\u2019m trying to change that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said it was too early to determine the cost of taking the commercial, two-launch route for EM-1. \u201cThere are options to achieve the objective, but it might require some help from Congress,\u201d said Bridenstine, a former congressman from Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

Bridenstine said the SLS program would continue, with a \u201cfull-up green run test\u201d to be conducted at NASA\u2019s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi in preparation for the SLS\u2019 first test launch. A green run test involves firing the rocket\u2019s engines on a ground-based test structure rather than actually launching the rocket.<\/p>\n

The White House\u2019s budget proposal for fiscal year 2020, released earlier this week, already calls for reducing spending on SLS development by 17.4 percent, to $1.78 billion. The spending plan also opens the door for using commercial rockets to deliver the first elements of the international Gateway space platform to lunar orbit. NASA wants to have the Gateway up and running by 2024.<\/p>\n

For years, critics of the SLS have said it could be overtaken by emerging commercial heavy-lift offerings such as SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy and Blue Origin\u2019s yet-to-built New Glenn rocket. The possibility of launching components on multiple heavy-lift rockets and assembling them in orbit could open the door wider for arguments that the SLS is unnecessary.<\/p>\n

Update for 1:30 p.m. PT March 14:<\/strong> In a memo sent to NASA employees, Bridenstine provided more clarity about how the plan for SLS flights would proceed.<\/p>\n

He envisions having the uncrewed EM-1 test mission flown around the moon in 2020, using the double-rocket scenario he outlined at the Senate hearing.<\/p>\n

Then there would be another uncrewed mission in 2021, involving the launch of the first SLS to lunar orbit with \u201chabitation or other hardware.\u201d Let\u2019s call that EM-1B.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would get us back on schedule for a crewed lunar orbital mission in 2022 with the added bonus of a lunar destination for our astronauts,\u201d Bridenstine wrote. That would presumably be the crewed mission currently known as EM-2.<\/p>\n

Bridenstine said SLS was still essential to NASA\u2019s future plans, because the double-rocket scenario \u201cis not optimum or sustainable,\u201d and because docking crewed vehicles in Earth orbit to get to the moon \u201cadds complexity and risk that is undesirable.\u201d (The strongest proponents of space commercialization might take issue with those views.)<\/p>\n

SLS is still NASA\u2019s preferred vehicle for sending payloads and people to the moon, and eventually to Mars, Bridenstine said. He told employees that the double-rocket scenario is only a \u201ctemporary solution used to get back on track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years to come, we\u2019ll know better how temporary it truly is.<\/p>\n