NASA will pay $146M for each SLS rocket engine
arstechnica.com
NASA will pay $146M for each SLS rocket engine
1–10 of 63 posts
Re: NASA will pay $146M for each SLS rocket engine
#2Tim Dodd just released an excellent (and long) video comparing the costs of SLS with Falcon Heavy and (eventually, maybe) Starship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA69Oh3_obY&feature=youtu.be
SLS will cost upwards of a billion per launch. Compare that to $90 million for a reusable Falcon Heavy launch or ~$150 million for a disposable one.
Re: NASA will pay $146M for each SLS rocket engine
#3I feel like we'd all be better off if the federal government just cut an equivalent no-strings-attached check to Alabama in perpetuity, cancelled the SLS, and freed up all the rocket scientists to build something useful.
They could probably even do it in Alabama! SpaceX could open a local branch and mop up the talent. The current "waste money on the SLS for political reasons" just feels like the worst of all possible worlds.
Re: NASA will pay $146M for each SLS rocket engine
#4Compared to $1m for a reusable Raptor that has more power at sea level.
There really should be painful monetary and career consequences for the people who makes these insane decisions. The reality is it doesn't matter a bit and they'll retire with a wall full of accolades.
Re: NASA will pay $146M for each SLS rocket engine
#5Space isn’t easy. Going to the moon is significantly harder than LEO. I don’t think one can claim functional and performance equivalence between SLS to FH.
Now, if the argument is: Why go to the moon? Well, that’s a different conversation.
Re: NASA will pay $146M for each SLS rocket engine
#6I don't understand - what is the motivation here? The article is a little short, and it gives good insight into just how expensive this is (compared to other similarly classed potential space purchases). However, what I am failing to grasp is... why? Why spend so much when these other options are available? Surely not ignorance. Is it malice? corruption? Someone's ego?
Re: NASA will pay $146M for each SLS rocket engine
#7I don't understand - what is the motivation here? The article is a little short, and it gives good insight into just how expensive this is (compared to other similarly classed potential space purchases). However, what I am failing to grasp is... why? Why spend so much when these other options are available? Surely not ignorance. Is it malice? corruption? Someone's ego?
Last sentence: Politics.
> Men and women in all 50 states are hard at work..
Re: NASA will pay $146M for each SLS rocket engine
#8I don't understand - what is the motivation here? The article is a little short, and it gives good insight into just how expensive this is (compared to other similarly classed potential space purchases). However, what I am failing to grasp is... why? Why spend so much when these other options are available? Surely not ignorance. Is it malice? corruption? Someone's ego?
You just assume that there are other options that meet their requirements, which might not be the case
Re: NASA will pay $146M for each SLS rocket engine
#9I don't understand - what is the motivation here? The article is a little short, and it gives good insight into just how expensive this is (compared to other similarly classed potential space purchases). However, what I am failing to grasp is... why? Why spend so much when these other options are available? Surely not ignorance. Is it malice? corruption? Someone's ego?
This is a jobs program which happens to produce rockets. The rockets are not the key objective, the jobs are.
Re: NASA will pay $146M for each SLS rocket engine
#10I don't understand - what is the motivation here? The article is a little short, and it gives good insight into just how expensive this is (compared to other similarly classed potential space purchases). However, what I am failing to grasp is... why? Why spend so much when these other options are available? Surely not ignorance. Is it malice? corruption? Someone's ego?
You just assume that there are other options that meet their requirements, which might not be the case
The requirements were made so that the SLS would be the only thing that would be rated to launch it