NASA’s large rocket misses another deadline, won’t fly until 2022

Publicly, NASA still retains the possibility of a launch date in 2021 for the first flight of its Space Launch System rocket. This week, a spokesperson for the agency told Ars that “NASA is working on launching the Artemis I mission by the end of this year.”

However, a source said that the best scenario for the launch of the Artemis 1 mission is spring next year, with summer being the most realistic target for a test flight of the heavy lift rocket and the Orion spaceship. The space agency is already about two months behind on internal targets for testing and integrating the rocket at Kennedy Space Center, and critical pre-flight testing is yet to come.

NASA’s Kathryn Hambleton admitted that the space agency had seen schedule slips. “The agency continues to monitor the increase in COVID cases in the Kennedy area, which, combined with other factors such as weather and early operations, is impacting our schedule of operations,” a- she declared. “By taking it step by step, we are moving towards the launch while keeping our team as safe as possible. “

Earlier this summer, technicians and engineers in Florida completed stacking the SLS rocket, along with its side boosters. A “mass simulator” for Orion was then placed on top of the rocket. At present, NASA and its contractors are working on vibration tests of the assembled rocket, with the goal of better understanding the difference between natural vibrations of the full stack and those caused by external forces. This information will be entered into the flight software.

NASA originally hoped to complete this work in July, but Hambleton confirmed to Ars that this vibration, or “modal” test, is underway in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center.

As a result of these tests, the mass simulator will be removed and the Orion spacecraft with its launch interrupt system will be neatly stacked on top of the rocket. This process may take a few weeks. After this assembly and further testing, the SLS stack will be routed to Launch Pad 39B for a “wet dress rehearsal”, during which the vehicle will be refueled and much of an actual countdown will be simulated. However, the vehicle’s engines will not be triggered. A source said this wet suit test would likely take place in November or December.

After this test, the vehicle will be returned to the vehicle assembly building for final checks and fencing. Assuming the wet dress rehearsal goes nominally and other activities continue on schedule, the SLS rocket could be launched next spring. However, if there are further delays, or if the wet dress rehearsal identifies new issues, the launch would be more likely to slip into next summer.

Hambleton said NASA plans to offer an update on launch dates soon. After modal testing and stacking Orion on top of the rocket, she said the agency would release a date scheduled for the wet dress rehearsal and launch of the rocket itself. “As always, we will only fly when we are ready,” she said.

Despite years of delay and a multibillion-dollar budget overrun, the launch of this rocket will be a little miracle of sorts. For a large bureaucracy like NASA, accomplishing the complex tasks of human spaceflight is difficult. And the SLS rocket is both technically and politically complex.

Concerned about job losses after the retirement of the Space Shuttle, Congress imposed this rocket on the space agency, dictating its various components to ensure that space shuttle contractors such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Aerojet Rocketdyne continue to receive a substantial space program. funding. Each contractor was awarded a “cost plus” contract which provided funding but offered few incentives for on-time delivery.

Legislation creating the space launch system was passed in October 2010, when the rocket was expected to be ready for operation in 2016. One of the main legislators behind the rocket’s creation was the Florida Senator at the time. Bill Nelson. He has fought tirelessly against the Obama administration’s efforts to see if private companies, such as the United Launch Alliance and SpaceX, could more efficiently build a large rocket for NASA. The space agency and its traditional contractors could do the job better than anyone, he said.

“This rocket comes at a cost of not only what we estimated in NASA’s licensing act, but less,” Nelson said at the time. “The cost of the rocket over a five to six year period at NASA’s authorization bill was not to exceed $ 11.5 billion. Later he went further by saying, ‘If we can’t to make a rocket for $ 11.5 billion, we should go out of business. ”

More than a decade later, NASA has spent more than $ 20 billion to reach the launch pad. And Nelson is no longer a US senator, he is the administrator of the space agency. The store remains open.