I realize the costs in the ArsTechnica article are true, but I despise price stacking from one program to another. His own research doesn't get close enough to round to a billion dollars US without adding the Ares I work to the SLS work.Also, he laments that this ML (mobile launcher) may only be used once. It wasn't EVER going to be used again after one launch of a test Ares I. Did that bother him then?OK, stepping away from the podium and shutting up.
Quote from: Kansan52 on 02/20/2018 03:47 pmI realize the costs in the ArsTechnica article are true, but I despise price stacking from one program to another. His own research doesn't get close enough to round to a billion dollars US without adding the Ares I work to the SLS work.Also, he laments that this ML (mobile launcher) may only be used once. It wasn't EVER going to be used again after one launch of a test Ares I. Did that bother him then?OK, stepping away from the podium and shutting up.I thought it was going to be converted to crew launches with Ares 1, after the Ares I-X launch but before Constellation was canceled.
At this point, it would have been faster and cheaper to have scrapped everything related to Constellation and Shuttle in 2011 and built an all-new SHLV system from scratch.
And the article:QuoteNASA spends $1 billion for a launch tower that leans, may only be used onceQuoteInstead of costing just $54 million, the US Government Accountability Office found that NASA spent $281.8 million revamping the mobile launcher from fiscal years 2012 to 2015, but still the work was not done. The recently released White House budget for fiscal year 2019 reveals that NASA anticipates spending an additional $396.2 million on the mobile launcher from 2015 through the maiden launch of the SLS, probably in 2020.Therefore, from the tower's inception in 2009, NASA will have spent $912 million on the mobile launcher it may use for just a single launch of the SLS rocket. Moreover, the agency will have required eight years to modify a launch tower it built in two years.https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/nasa-spends-1-billion-for-a-launch-tower-that-leans-may-only-be-used-once/
NASA spends $1 billion for a launch tower that leans, may only be used once
Instead of costing just $54 million, the US Government Accountability Office found that NASA spent $281.8 million revamping the mobile launcher from fiscal years 2012 to 2015, but still the work was not done. The recently released White House budget for fiscal year 2019 reveals that NASA anticipates spending an additional $396.2 million on the mobile launcher from 2015 through the maiden launch of the SLS, probably in 2020.Therefore, from the tower's inception in 2009, NASA will have spent $912 million on the mobile launcher it may use for just a single launch of the SLS rocket. Moreover, the agency will have required eight years to modify a launch tower it built in two years.
The walkway has no handrails. It's going to be glazed or something?
So the FY 2018 budget for the US has in the NASA section $350mn for a second Mobile Launcher. Also the bill passed the house and is likely to pass the Senate and go to the president as written in the next few days. What does this mean for launch cadence and the existing ML?
So what's the progress on the ML?I heard on a article that it is ready to go but I haven't seen anything else that supports that.Very hyped for EM-1 btw