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Having trouble preparing its new giant rocket in time for a launch scheduled for next year, NASA may well leave it on the ground and turn to commercial alternatives.
"NASA did not keep its launch dates," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine at a hearing before a Senate committee on Wednesday, "and I'm trying to change that. "
NASA plans to send its Orion capsule, designed to carry astronauts on mission in the deep space, during an unmanned test trip around the moon year-round next.
But the schedule to complete the rocket that will carry Orion – known as the Space Launch System – has failed several times while NASA has spent more than $ 10 billion on the program so far. Last year, announcing the latest delay, NASA said the mission was scheduled for late 2019, while conceding that June 2020 was a more realistic date.
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In October, the NASA inspector general issued a report severely criticizing Boeing, the main contractor for the rocket.
"The cost increases and development delays of the main stage are largely due to management, technical and infrastructure issues related to poor Boeing performance," the report says. "For example, Boeing officials have consistently underestimated the scale of the work to be done and therefore the size and skills of the required workforce."
On Wednesday, Bridenstine said that last week it became clear that the rocket would probably not be ready, not even in June 2020. He had asked managers to explore whether there would be another launch medium.
"The goal is to get back on track," said Bridenstine. He added that the space agency would make a decision "in the coming weeks" and that it might require additional Congressional funding.
The largest rockets currently built by private companies are smaller than the space launch system. Therefore, if NASA decides to follow this approach, the mission payload should be split between two rockets. The Orion capsule and its service module, a component built by the European Space Agency to provide energy and propulsion, would roll into orbit around a rocket. A rocket scene powered to propel Orion on the Moon would rise separately.
The two pieces would then meet and move into orbit before heading to the moon. Mr. Bridenstine noted that Orion currently had no ability to dock with another spacecraft in orbit. "By June 2020, we will have to make it a reality," said Bridenstine.
Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi and Chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said, "This is 2019."
A commercially launched mission would thoroughly test Orion and the service module, one of the main objectives, but it would advance the first flight of the space launch system in the future.
Mr. Bridenstine has not specified the commercial rockets that could be used, but the two powerful ones are the Delta 4 Heavy from United Launch Alliance, a Boeing joint venture and Lockheed Martin. the SpaceX Falcon Heavy, the rocket company founded by Elon Musk.
The Orion has already been launched at the top of a Delta 4 Heavy, in 2014, for an unmanned test flight, but that did not happen on the moon. The Falcon Heavy stole only during its test launch in February 2018.
At the hearing, Mr. Bridenstine continued to describe NASA's big rocket as an essential part of the space agency's plans. But if the commercial approach works for test flight, some space observers are wondering why the same strategy would not work for missions carrying astronauts.
NASA could move away from the space launch system and use less expensive commercial rockets for other missions, including lunar gateway elements, a planned outpost orbiting the moon and the moon. Launch of Europa Clipper, a robotic mission studying one of Jupiter's moons.
In its budget proposal for fiscal year 2020, the Trump administration also proposes the postponement of an upgrade to the second phase of the space launch system on which Boeing is working. This is not necessary for the first missions but will allow the transport of heavier payloads in the space.
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