NASA costs pegged by White House
The price tag to launch rocket is about $2 billion
The cost for NASA to fly its long-delayed Space Launch System rocket will be as much as $2 billion, according to a White House budget official.
The expense of flying the SLS rocket, which is vital to NASA’s five-year moon strategy, was disclosed in an Oct. 23 letter from Russell Vought, the acting director of the White House budget office, to U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, the Alabama Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Vought explained that because the price tag to launch the SLS is as much as $2 billion, the White House prefers the agency use a cheaper commercial rocket for a planned mission to explore Jupiter’s moon, Europa.
“Unlike the human exploration program, which requires use of the SLS, the Europa mission could be launched by a commercial rocket,” Vought wrote. “At an estimated cost of over $2 billion per launch for the SLS once development is complete, the use of a commercial launch vehicle would provide over $1.5 billion in cost savings.”
The $2 billion figure, previously undisclosed by NASA, underscores the space agency’s challenge in finding the funds to put humans on the Moon four years earlier than intended, in 2024 instead of 2028 — a project now known as Artemis.
In a statement, NASA said it is working to bring down the cost of a single SLS launch as the agency continues negotiations with Boeing on the long-term production contract and other contracts associated with the rocket. The agency noted that the cost for a second SLS launch in a given year would be significantly less because the fixed costs are covered by the first SLS launch.
“In addition to cost-efficient bulk purchases, lessons learned during initial manufacturing, continuous improvement efforts, and standardization of work flow will improve the manufacturing process, and result in reduced overall costs,” the agency wrote.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has said the Artemis moon program could cost upwards of $30 billion, but the agency has not provided a budget plan to Congress. And such a plan will not be ready until early 2020.
The delayed construction of the SLS rocket, being built by Boeing, further complicates matters. The rocket was supposed to launch two Orion spacecraft — one for the first, uncrewed Orion flight and one for the second that would carry Americans around the moon.
Boeing most recently told NASA it couldn’t make the June 2020 launch date, which was supposed to send Orion without a crew around the moon. NASA is working to meet the 2020 launch date for that mission, but acknowledges that it could be rescheduled for 2021. The first crewed Orion launch, Artemis II, is still on track for 2023 as previously planned.
Meanwhile, the cost to construct the SLS rocket has gone up almost 30 percent, or nearly $2 billion, according to a Government Accountability Office report released in June. The GAO reported that the true cost of the program is unknown. Boeing was first awarded the SLS contract in 2012.
Despite Boeing’s difficulties meeting deadlines, NASA has continued to rate the company’s performance as “excellent” and, in some cases, “very good.” Between July 2014 and September 2018, NASA has awarded Boeing about 81 percent of the available fees, amounting to $271 million.
NASA is developing a commercial backup plan just in case SLS continues to experience problems, with an eye towards using it for the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter. Congress, however, has mandated that NASA use the more costly SLS rocket for that mission.
Vought’s letter referenced a NASA inspectorgeneral report released in May that recommended the agency continue to maintain United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy rocket and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket as alternatives for the Europa Clipper mission. The report also calls for additional flexibility in allowing NASA to identify the appropriate launch vehicle for the Jupiter mission.