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.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is launched on at Cape Canaveral, Fla. By Christian Davenport Christian Davenport Reporter covering the defense and space industries Email Bio Follow March 13 at 2:42 PM NASA 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.
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. Boeing’s SLS rocket has repeatedly suffered schedule delays and cost overruns. In a scathing report last year, NASA’s inspector general found that the SLS program would require a massive amount of additional funding that could double the cost of the project to nearly $9 billion.
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