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Without the space launch system, NASA would be forced to buy two launches of heavy transport vehicles.
Additional delays with a Boeing rocket prompted NASA to consider commercial assistance to mitigate further delays in the launch of the agency's future deep space exploration vessel.
The Space Launch System (SLS) "is struggling to meet its schedule," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. The rocket will not be ready for launch in June 2020, when NASA planned the Exploration-1 flight of its Orion spacecraft around the moon.
The agency is now exploring options to meet this deadline using "commercial capabilities," said Bridenstine. He said the agency remains committed to Boeing's SLS, the largest rocket in US history and a "critical capability" for future space missions.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will decide how to proceed with an un-built test flight this month, he said.
"We need to consider all possible options as an agency" to keep the EM-1 mission on schedule, said Bridenstine. "NASA has a habit of not respecting the launch dates and I'm trying to change that."
According to an audit conducted in October 2018 by NASA's Inspector General, the SLS program presented numerous management failures and indicated that Boeing would spend at least $ 8.9 billion for the rocket, double the original budget allocated to the contract.
A test flight of the Orion capsule was launched in early 2015 aboard a Delta IV rocket built by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Without the SLS, NASA would be forced to buy two launches of heavy transport vehicles, and then integrate the Orion to an upper floor into orbit, which would increase costs. Bridenstine told the Senate panel that NASA might need additional Congressional financial assistance.
"The challenges of integration are important," said in a statement the industry trade group, the Coalition for In-Depth Exploration of Space. The group represents aerospace companies, including Boeing and Lockheed Martin. "It is also clear that this approach would require additional funding as it is both to undertake this mission and to further develop the SLS."
After the hearing, Bridenstine told Space News that he had not spoken to ULA or Elon Musk's SpaceX about the use of their heavy-duty vehicles for the mission. EM-1.
A subsequent flight, EM-2, would be launched with the SLS in 2023 and would transport crew members.
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