The Washington Post By Christian Davenport 3/13/2019
The White House is in such a hurry to get to the moon that NASA is considering sidelining its major rocket to make it happen
The announcement is another blow to BoeingNASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday that the agency is considering bypassing the long-delayed rocket it’s been building for years for its upcoming mission to the moon, instead considering commercial alternatives.
If that comes to fruition, it would mark a radical change from the way NASA had planned to return to the moon and would be a blow to the Space Launch System, involving a gigantic rocket that a government watchdog recently warned could cost as much as $9 billion.
Bridenstine’s comments, coming during a Senate committee hearing, show how NASA and the White House are getting frustrated with the slow pace of progress. The National Space Council, headed by Vice President Pence, has made a return to the moon a top priority, and officials have said the administration would like it to happen before the 2020 presidential election.
The Space Launch System was supposed to launch the Orion spacecraft in an uncrewed mission in orbit the moon no later than June 2020. But Bridenstine said the agency had recently been informed that there was going to be yet another schedule delay in what’s known as Exploration Mission-1, or EM-1.
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/03/13/white-house-is-such-hurry-get-moon-that-nasa-is-considering-sidelining-its-major-rocket-make-it-happen/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7d5ee5d8b979