NASA’s huge Space Launch System will finally make its public debut, twelve years after it was first announced. The rollout of the super heavy-lift rocket and Orion spacecraft to the launch pad at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center will begin on Thursday, a much-anticipated move for a launch system racked by delays and an ever-increasing price tag.
Following the 11-hour rollout on Thursday, NASA will execute a series of tests to assess launch readiness, including certifying software systems and servicing rockets. Following that, NASA will conduct a ‘;wet dress rehearsal,’ a series of additional prelaunch tests in which the system’s propellant tanks will be loaded.
During a media call on Monday, Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson informed reporters that the wet dress might happen on April 3 if the deployment goes smoothly.
It’s taken a long time for this to happen. Back in 2010, Congress mandated that NASA create SLS to replace the Space Shuttle, the agency’s first spaceflight workhorse. As part of NASA’s Artemis programme, the SLS is envisioned as a vehicle that will return humans to the moon and maybe much further into the solar system.
However, the project has experienced numerous setbacks and technological challenges since then. A year ago, NASA’s Inspector General’s office released a devastating assessment on the SLS program’s expenses and contracts, concluding that ‘increasing costs and delays’ have pushed the project’s overall budget far beyond its initial scope. The aerospace primes have arguably benefited the most from this mishap, particularly Boeing, which is leading SLS development, Northrop Grumman, and Aerojet, whose contracts accounted for 71 percent of the total funding spent on all SLS contracts in 2019, according to the Inspector General.
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