SLS cost growth exceeds threshold for formal review

[smp]

From SpaceNews.com:
"WASHINGTON — The cost of NASA’s Space Launch System has grown to the point where the agency must notify Congress and perform a formal reassessment of the program, NASA’s inspector general concluded in a March 10 report.

The report by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that the SLS program’s costs through the rocket’s first flight had grown by at least 33% from a formal agency baseline commitment, and likely will grow to at least 43% given projected delays in that launch.

That original commitment set the cost of SLS development through the first launch, Artemis 1, at $7 billion, a figure that does not include $2.7 billion in earlier formulation costs for the heavy-lift rocket. That commitment also missed costs associated with other aspects of the SLS program not directly tied to the Artemis 1 launch."

https://spacenews.com/sls-cost-growth-e ... al-review/

I say let it die, and proceed with commercial competition.

smp

[notFritzArgelander]

So say I. The unrealistic, politically driven schedule is a problem, true. However this is very bad news that augurs for program failure.

[smp]

I agree about the politically driven schedule wholeheartedly.

The big thing for folks to remember, though, is that Boeing has been doing this development for the past 10 years!

Talk about a black hole, into which we are throwing vast amounts of money!

IIRC, about 6 months ago there were articles indicating that Contractors were still receiving bonus awards on their contracts, even though the entire mess was falling further and further behind schedule. I am so glad that perhaps some sort of reckoning might occur here, if only to get the facts all out onto the public record.

smp

[smp]

Here's another article that I missed before, from SpaceFlightNow.com:
"NASA inspector general says SLS moon rocket costs continue to climb"

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/03/10/n ... -to-climb/

smp

[GCoyote]