Page 18 - DESPA

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 15 May 2017

NASA nixes crew for test flight of new megarocket in 2019

MARCIA DUNN without a crew, and the the available resources, he
AP Aerospace Writer lessons learned can help said, not just a single-ob-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. advance the next mission jective mission.
(AP) — NASA’s new mega- when people finally are on The Apollo moon program
rocket will launch with- board. of the 1960s and early
out astronauts on its test Lightfoot said it would have 1970s represented a sprint
flight, now delayed until been technically feasible to a single destination, Ger-
2019 because of techni- to add a crew, given more stenmaier noted.
cal challenges, the space funding, but decided to The SLS rocket is meant to
agency’s top leaders said stay the course. support flights to not only
Friday. It would have cost an extra the moon and Mars, but
In February at the request $600 million to $900 million the moons of Mars and
of the White House, NASA to outfit the system for as- even farther into the solar
began studying the possi- tronauts on the initial flight, system, with potential com-
bility of putting a crew on Gerstenmaier said. mercial activity as well.
the first flight. After review- Earlier this week, NASA re- The megarocket represents
ing the costs and risks, the ported that a section of a robust foundation for ul-
space agency decided test hardware was dam- timately moving human
against it. aged during manufactur- presence out into the solar
The White House took part ing in New Orleans. system, Gerstenmaier said.
in the decision, said NASA’s No one was injured in the “That’s a grander vision in a
Acting Administrator Rob- May 3 mishap. way than just moving peo-
ert Lightfoot. Technicians were lowering ple to the moon for the first
Still in development, the dome for the bottom of time, although that was a
the super-sized Space a liquid oxygen tank, when very special moment and
Launch System rocket is the dome ended up ram- a very special challenge
meant to eventually send ming into a support struc- for those teams moving for-
astronauts to Mars. ture. NASA is investigating. ward.
The first launch had been Gerstenmaier called it “an But we’re building off of
targeted for next year, but This undated image made available by NASA shows an artist’s unfortunate event” but that legacy now to move
rendering of the Space Launch System.
now won’t happen until Associated Press said it shouldn’t affect the in a more sustained man-
2019 when NASA will send schedule much. ner,” he said.
an unoccupied Orion cap- The second flight will have because of all the delays Late last month, the U.S. Earlier this year, SpaceX an-
sule to the vicinity of the astronauts on board. It is with the first flight. Government Accountabil- nounced a bold mission to
moon for a three-week trial scheduled for 2021, but will It would have cost a lot ity Office warned that a send two paying passen-
run. almost certainly be later more money and time to delay was likely for the first gers on a flight around the
add life-support systems SLS flight, crew or not. The moon in 2018.
and other human-required current exploration effort SpaceX chief Elon Musk
equipment for the test will cost nearly $24 billion also aims to colonize Mars.
flight, said Bill Gerstenmai- by the end of fiscal 2018, “I’ve been saying it for a
er, head of NASA’s human the GAO reported. while.
explorations and opera- Lightfoot acknowledged This is an ‘and’ proposition,
tions. that he and others are this is not an ‘or,’” Lightfoot
“The best plan we have is frustrated by the techni- said. “If you look at what
actually the plan we’re on cal challenges that have we’re trying to do, it’s go-
right now,” he said. slowed down the program. ing to take really all of us,
The test flight can be more The agency is aiming for a frankly, to get this done.”q
dynamic, as NASA calls it, sustainable program within