NASA’s moon rocket launch delayed
This won’t be SLS’ year. NASA’s heavy-lift rocket, designed to be the most powerful of all time to return astronauts to the moon, was supposed to fly on its first mission in November after years of delays and cost overruns under a program known as Artemis.
But a NASA Office of the Inspector General audit released Tuesday found the program is still struggling to stay on track, even after cash infusions and increased pressure to get boots on the moon by 2024 — a major goal of President Donald Trump. The report is the latest in a string of audits by the inspector general that has consistently warned about the breadth of challenges within the program.
Now, the earliest SLS will fly is likely spring 2021, a delay that the audit predicts will cost the space agency another $1.4 billion.
By the end of this fiscal year, the audit estimates that NASA will have spent more than $17 billion on the program — a 60% increase from the agency’s original projection of $10.2 billion set in 2014. By the spring of 2021, total program costs will be hovering around $18.3 billion.
The delays continue to put the president’s already ambitious goal of a 2024 landing instead of a lunar landing in 2028, as originally planned, on perilous ground. The second mission, which will carry crew on a lunar flyby, is supposed to take off in October 2022, followed by the moon landing flight at the end of 2024.
“Going forward, expected delays resulting from upcoming testing and integration events, along with new Artemis lunar plans, may hinder NASA’s ability to meet the agency’s mid- and longer-term space exploration goals, including landing on the moon in 2024 and reaching Mars in the 2030s,” the audit found.