The launch of NASA in Orion faces additional delays as new problems arise with the development of rockets

The long-awaited launch of Orion – the spacecraft built by NASA to bring Americans back to the moon – is unlikely to be ready for launch scheduled for mid-2020 due to the cost and timing issues of the rocket that will send it in the space.

The delay, described Wednesday in a report from the NASA's Inspector General's office, is the second setback this week for the space agency, which reported Monday that the Hubble Space Telescope had been temporarily halted in September. reason for a mechanical failure that had paralyzed the revolutionary observatory.

The report concluded that NASA should spend an additional $ 1.2 billion if it wanted the launch of Orion to be completed in June 2020 as planned. The report did not provide a new launch date for the Space Launch System rocket, which has already been delayed several times.

"We concluded that NASA would not be able to meet its current launch window (Exploration Mission-1) between December 2019 and June 2020," according to the OIG report.

NASA, however, remained optimistic about the launch of Orion as planned.

"NASA has made significant progress on SLS, including production on the main stage, and the agency continues to plan the launch of the Mission-1 Exploration in 2020, but there are still technical and technical risks. calendar, "said Kathryn Hambleton, spokesperson for NASA.

The first mission of the Orion spacecraft, Exploration Mission-1, is supposed to be unmanned. The second, Exploration Mission-2, will launch humans around the moon and is expected to fly no later than 2023.

The OIG report places the problems of the project largely on the shoulders of Boeing, the contractor responsible for the construction of the main stage of the rocket, the body of the rocket that contains the fuel tanks and the main engines.

"We found that Boeing's poor performance is the main reason for the significant increase in costs and delays in the development of the main SLS stadium," the report said.

Jason Davis, Digital Editor of The Planetary Society, expressed disappointment at the delays, saying NASA and Boeing had "completely failed" to keep their promise to build the most powerful rocket in the space agency.

"One would think that NASA will know how to run a rocket program," Davis said. "They have been doing it from the beginning, but this report clearly shows that there are problems."

Private companies continue to develop reusable and cheaper rockets. SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, sent a Tesla car into space earlier this year with a rocket built by the company.

Double the cost

In 2012, Boeing was awarded a contract for the construction of two SLS cores for NASA, one for the first flight without Orion preparation and the other for the second one. would carry the Americans around the moon. The last American astronauts landed on the Moon in 1972.

At that time, the non-equipped flight was scheduled to begin in 2017. However, this schedule did not work as planned, as the project was undermined by construction delays and cost increases.

"At Boeing's current spending rate, we expect NASA to spend at least $ 8.9 billion by 2021, double the amount initially forecast." The delivery of the first major phase has been reduced by two years. and a half between June 2017 and December 2019 and could further decrease "the report says.

According to the report, the main reasons for delays and cost increases were the fact that Boeing had underestimated the scope of work (and therefore the skills and personnel required to carry it out) and had still not provided NASA's realistic estimates in terms of time and cost.

For example, the report has highlighted a test of the four main engines of the rocket, as well as its tanks of hydrogen and liquid oxygen, which must be carried out. This test is 18 months late, the report added, and may not be done until May 2019.

Boeing told the OIG that many of the problems were related to insufficient funding, although BIG officials and NASA strongly opposed.

"An unprecedented rocket program presents inherent challenges, developing the first unit of a system capable of transporting human beings safely into space, even more so," said Boeing in a statement.

The report reveals that NASA personnel are not faultless about the rocket problem.

The report states that NASA rated Boeing's contract performance as "excellent" and, in some cases, as "very good" despite delays and cost changes. The space agency has also awarded Boeing 90% of the contract costs of $ 323 million.

"Given the cost overruns and delays in the SLS program, we are questioning nearly $ 64 million of allocation fees already paid to Boeing," the report says.

In a statement, NASA officials said they "had met for the first time several challenges related to the design, development and manufacture of such a large and extremely complex system."

The agency added that she "fully supports the SLS program and the mastermind of the main phase, Boeing, as they have already met many challenges and continue to show significant improvements in terms of efficiency and management ".

"They completely failed"

The OIG report made seven suggestions for better managing the rocket contract, which has been criticized for its excessive cost and durability.

The office suggested reviewing the contract and seeking an independent cost estimate from the federal government. Once this review is complete, the report suggests renegotiating the contract based on this information.

Boeing said in its statement that many of the office's suggestions are already being implemented.

"Boeing recognizes the importance of the SLS program for the country and the future of manned spaceflight, and we are committed to its continued success," the statement said. "We have restructured our management team to better meet the challenges of the current program and we are refining our approaches and tools to ensure a successful transition from development to production."

Davis said that he thought the project would eventually be canceled – replaced by a commercial rocket such as SpaceX's Falcon Heavy – but that will probably not happen any time soon. He expects a test flight to take place as long as the schedule will not be missed.

"All NASA and Boeing had to do to respond to this criticism was to build the rocket and fly it," said Davis. "They have completely failed to do that, which makes it really vulnerable to cancellation on the road."

Wednesday's announcement comes a day after problems with the Hubble Space Telescope forced the agency to put the revolutionary observatory into "safe mode" for an indefinite period while NASA is working to solve the problem. Hubble has been orbiting the Earth for 28 years, proving to the world that the universe was 13.7 billion years old and that most galaxies harbor super-massive black holes.

Hubble's problems can be traced back to worn-out gyroscopes, which hold the telescope in precise position for long periods of time, as it returns data to scientists studying space.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the Houston Chronicle's environment. You can reach her at [email protected] or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.