The Space Launch System’s booster and engine are now projected to cost at least $13.1 billion over 25 years.
According to a 56-page analysis by NASA’s independent inspector general, released on Thursday, “significant cost overruns and delays” could jeopardize the space agency’s lunar program as funds run low, reports Florida Today.
Development of the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) began in November 2011, with a target date of 2016, as NASA aimed to put astronauts back on the moon. It finally had a successful test flight in November 2022,
However, the scathing report from the inspector general said NASA continues to see cost increases and delays related to the two main components of the Space Launch System rocket’s propulsion: four RS-25 main engines and two solid rocket boosters.
The SLS megarocket is intended to return humans to the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program, but increases in costs related to contracts awarded to Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman for SLS’s propulsion systems could threaten that objective.
One problem is that each launch, including the one in 2022, and with five more planned, will burn through four main engines and two boosters, say the auditors.
“NASA continues to experience significant scope growth, cost increases, and schedule delays on its booster and RS-25 engine contracts, resulting in approximately $6 billion in cost increases and over 6 years in schedule delays above NASA’s original projections,” auditors said in the report titled “NASA’s Management of the Space Launch System Booster and Engine Contracts.”
According to Gizmodo, NASA salvaged 16 RS-25 engines from retired Space Shuttles, of which four were used during Artemis 1. Once these run out, the space agency will switch to RS-25E engines currently being built by Aerojet Rocketdyne, which cost 30 percent less than the originals, but provide 111 percent of rated thrust. SLS is completely expendable, including its engines.
NASA is trying to decrease SLS costs moving forward, with the projected 30 percent price dip per engine, “however, those savings do not capture overhead and other costs,” the report stated.
The projected cost of each SLS rocket has gone over budget by $144 million through Artemis 4, increasing the overall cost of a single Artemis launch to at least $4.2 billion, according to the report.
“Without greater attention to these important safeguards, NASA and its contracts will continue to exceed planned cost and schedule, resulting in a reduced availability of funds, delayed launches, and the erosion of the public’s trust in the Agency’s ability to responsibly spend taxpayer money and meet mission goals and objectives — including returning humans safely to the moon and onward to Mars,” the report concludes reports Space.com.
NASA’s next mission in the Artemis Program, Artemis 2, is scheduled to send a crew of four astronauts on a round-trip voyage around the moon in 2024.
