Report casts doubt on NASA plan to put humans back on moon by 2024

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle by Alex Stuckey June 19, 2019

NASA’s plan to put humans on the moon by 2024 might be in jeopardy after a recent federal report showed the agency has repeatedly masked the true cost and delays of its behemoth rocket.

The Space Launch System rocket — the backbone of NASA’s five-year moon strategy — has faced continued delays and burgeoning costs since Boeing was awarded the contract in 2012. But the state of the rocket is much worse than many thought, according to a 60-page report released Wednesday morning by the Government Accountability Office.

The cost has gone up almost 30 percent, or nearly $2 billion, the office found. And though NASA has continued to report that the rocket can be launched on its first flight without humans by the end of 2020, the GAO said this might not happen until June 2021.

NASA did not provide a comment Wednesday morning, directing the Houston Chronicle to responses included in the report. NASA vehemently defended the program, saying the federal watchdog focused on worst-case scenarios and failed to acknowledge the complexity of what was being built.

“Sending astronauts on lunar and Mars exploration missions, sustaining them for weeks at a time outside the protection of Earth’s magnetosphere, and ensuring their safety during the return to Earth from deep space velocities are extremely challenging engineering endeavors,” NASA wrote. “Our teams continue to rise to this challenge with the manufacturing and testing of the first elements of this system.”

The SLS rocket is vital to NASA’s plans to put humans on the lunar surface four years early, in 2024 instead of 2028 — a project now known as Artemis. The space agency is trying to convince Congress to provide an extra $1.6 billion in the budget year that begins Oct. 1. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine last week said a total of $20 to $30 billion would be needed.

But the report released Wednesday is not good news for Artemis, according to Keith Cowing, editor of NASA Watch, a website devoted to space news.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Report-casts-doubt-on-NASA-plan-to-put-humans-14019153.php