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WASHINGTON – A day after Vice President Mike Pence ordered NASA to send humans back to the moon's surface by 2024, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine told members of Congress that this goal was "very aggressive" and would require additional funding from the agency.
Bridenstine, who testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Business, Justice and Science Subcommittee, also said that the agency was looking at ways to accelerate the development of the House's procurement system. space launch, but could not guarantee that the vehicle would be ready for a first flight. in the middle of 2020.
The hearing on the agency's budget request for the fiscal year 2020 was scheduled before the National Space Board meeting in Huntsville, Alabama, on March 26, where Pence asked NASA to accelerate its plans to explore the human space to land humans at the south pole of the moon inside. five years. Bridenstine, who attended the meeting, endorsed the plan and said that he would continue to use the SLS, giving up proposals two weeks earlier to consider the use of commercial launch vehicles for the Orion flight of the Exploration Mission (ME) 1 in mid-2020. .
Bridenstine reiterated its commitment to use SLS for EM-1 during the hearing. "Some of these options are achievable," he said about the two-week study on commercial alternatives to EM-1, "none of these options will allow us to meet budget and deadlines. about the specific options that the agency has envisioned.
NASA is now looking for ways to accelerate the development of SLS for EM-1. "How can we really speed up the SLS at this point?" He said.
Bridenstine revealed that NASA is undertaking a 45-day study on ways to speed up work on the SLS, focusing on the main stadium, whose development problems have been a determining factor in the vehicle's delays. This report will be completed "in a few weeks", he said.
Possible options include the abandonment of the SLS Main Stage Green Run, which would involve moving the stage of the Michoud Assembly Station to the Stennis Space Center and installing it on a bench where the four RS-25s of the floor are located. the engines would light for eight minutes. Ignoring the test and sending the completed stage directly to the Kennedy Space Center, said industry sources, would save several months in the EM-1 program.
"The question is, is it necessary?" Said Bridenstine. "Could we test each engine individually under extremely nominal conditions in order to obtain certainty, or at least eliminate as much risk, or almost as if we were using the green runway," he said. , could save six calendar months.
The idea of eliminating the green trail test has drawn the attention of a committee member, Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), Whose district is home to Stennis. He asked Bridenstine for a briefing on alternatives to this test.
Palazzo, a former member of the Space Subcommittee of the House, noted previous hearings of astronauts who "testified to the importance of testing our rocket engines and testing them properly. because you only have one chance to do it, "he said. "You must not test a rocket when you are attached to this rocket."
Another way to speed up the schedule is to change how the sections of the main step are integrated. Bridenstine said that NASA was already developing the necessary tools to allow horizontal integration of the central scene rather than vertical integration.
Bridenstine said that the horizontal integration would allow other parts of the SLS main stage to meet, while work continues on the motor part of the scene, which is more complex and takes a lot than originally planned. "We are trying to move this motor section of the critical path," he said.
While these and other measures could reduce the development schedule by several months, Bridenstine refrained from saying that the EM-1 could still take place in June 2020, the official date of the mission. The likelihood of delays beyond June 2020 prompted the study of commercial launchers earlier this month to find ways to allow EM-1 to continue to be launched mid-next year.
"Will we meet on a launch date in June 2020? I do not think it's in the cards, "he said. "But I think we can accelerate significantly from where we were originally told that the launch date would take place, which could take a little less than two years. I think we can accelerate well before that. "
Once the EM-1 mission and the first crewed mission, EM-2, took place, Bridenstine spoke about increasing the production of SLS and Orion to support up to two launches by year. Members also urged to commit to developing the Block 1B version of SLS with its more powerful Upper Stage Exploration, as well as a second mobile launch platform specifically designed for the SLS 1B block.
Bridenstine, however, has not specified the specific plan that will allow humans to return to the lunar surface by 2024, nor the estimated cost. At one point in the hearing, Representative Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), One of the members who advocated for the SLS 1S block and a second mobile launcher, asked if the budget request presented to Congress earlier this month supported a human return by 2024.
"If we are going to have boots on the moon in 2024, as the vice president said yesterday and we can achieve, we will need SLS, and we need to speed up the process and get as much as possible. as soon as possible and we will need the upper stage of exploration as soon as possible, "replied Bridenstine. "2024 is a very aggressive program."
"So, I guess everything means that we would need more funds to achieve these goals," Crist said. Bridenstine replied in one word: "Yes".
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