No fair! Space Launch System gets cool stickers even though monster rocket failed test

NASA took its mind off ongoing problems with the testing of its monster Space Launch System by slapping stickers on the fairings. The spacecraft adaptor for the rocket, which protects the service module and is jettisoned during launch, has received the logo of the European Space Agency (ESA) below NASA's iconic "Meatball". …

[JassMan]

How does Boeing strategy fit ...

...with the world's need to "repair, reuse, recycle" in order to combat climate change?

The Boeing-led core stage, which aims to perform the feat of transforming reusable Space Shuttle Main Engines into one-shot wonders to be dumped into the ocean during launch, remains firmly in place in its test stand at the agency's Stennis Space Center after a premature end to its test fire.

They take a perfectly working reusable engine, play around with it, break it, and have a plan to dump it in the sea once it has performed a one off flight. WTF?

Yeah, I know that rockets are the most inefficient means of burning thousands of tons of fuel and oxydiser just to lift the fuel you are about to burn, but to waste everything else as well is total idiocy.

When are they going to get SABRE working?

[ravenviz]

Re: How does Boeing strategy fit ...

+1 for SABRE

[Alan Brown]

Re: How does Boeing strategy fit ...

"They take a perfectly working reusable engine"

Which cost more to refurb/rebuild than to just get a new one

(yes really: That's why)

[The Oncoming Scorn]

This is Boeing We Are talking About Yes?

Are we sure they are really stickers & not actually for reinforcing & maintaining structural integrity or ensuring the engine cowlings don't fall off shortly after take-off?

[MrReynolds2U]

Re: This is Boeing We Are talking About Yes?

They've moved the location of the boosters but because the airframe has already passed approval, these changes won't necessitate any re-approval.

[Timbo]

2nd Trump term "send off" ?

"The delay is likely to signify an end to hopes of launching Artemis I this year, and add further weight (if any were needed) to the argument for a delay to the 2024 landing on the Moon so beloved by the previous US administration."

One wonders if the previous US administration, lead by (now private citizen) Trump, endorsed this so that the moon mission took place during his 2nd term of office and it would have perhaps cemented Trumps "Make America Great Again" campaign. After all, Nixon did quite well out of the Apollo moon landings (until Watergate) - even though it was JFK's idea to get men on the moon "in this decade".

[Jim Mitchell]

Re: 2nd Trump term "send off" ?

At this rate, the SLS->Moon landing will take place in Trump's third term.

[Alistair]

Re: 2nd Trump term "send off" ?

I'm gonna guess it will happen during the next run of Clinton V Trump presidential competition, where Ivanka will have to engage in turkish oil wrestling with Chelsea on OANN in order to determine which will serve as the next figurehead.

(and yes, even I gagged a bit writing that)

[MyffyW]

Re: 2nd Trump term "send off" ?

@Alistair unfortunately I just know something like that is going to happen. Not exactly that but something vile and Black Mirror-esque.

[Binraider]

Re: 2nd Trump term "send off" ?

Politics and space flight have a long history of flip-flapping by administration. Mercury was originally a programme spun out of Eisenhower, Kennedy backed it to a large extent because he needed a WIN after the disastrous bay of pigs invasion. Which was also an Eisenhower hatched scheme - failing in no small part to the dem administrations somewhat justified reluctance to piss the Russians off.

God forbid a politician look beyond the end of there nose for anything, ever.

[James Ashton]

SRB Shelf Life?

Don't they have to scrap the SLS solid rocket boosters if they're not used within 12 months after being put together? And for some unfathomable reason they put them together before the failed test. They certainly know how to make their screw-ups cost money.

[Geoff Campbell]

The project is meeting all of its goals

However, it should be noted that said goals are basically "maximise the amount of cash we can screw out of the US government".

Meanwhile, SpaceX continue to establish an actual, genuine spaceport, complete with a production line to build as many Starships as they can find space to queue up.

GJC

[Jellied Eel]

Re: The project is meeting all of its goals

Meanwhile, SpaceX continue to establish an actual, genuine spaceport, complete with a production line to build as many Starships as they can find space to queue up.

.. And diversify into fraccing for oil & gas. Along with maximising the amount of cash it can screw out of the US government to build/upgrade facilities. Or recycle scrap stainless steel. But then the US space programme has always been fed on pork. Sometimes with good results, sometimes not.

But SpaceX is revolutionary, visionary, and will soon have Starships doing this-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39cjZTCay24

DC-X launched, did the 'belly flop', landed.. 12 launches, 8 successes, first launch 1993, but then killed off by NASA who wanted a space plane.

[Geoff Campbell]

Re: The project is meeting all of its goals

What's your point? Pretty much every single step of human endeavour is built on the developments that have gone before. DC-X does not invalidate what SpaceX are doing now, and neither do pragmatic decisions about getting fuel from existing sources, for now. There are plans to move on to synthesised fuels, later.

GJC

[Santa from Exeter]

Re: The project is meeting all of its goals

Exactly how many times did the DC-X get into orbit then?

It's all very well to claim, as the You Tuber does, that *anything* that has the same concept is 'Based On' what went before, but that means that an F1 car is 'Based on' the Model T

[Jellied Eel]

Re: The project is meeting all of its goals

Exactly how many times did the DC-X get into orbit then?

As many as the Starship?

It's all very well to claim, as the You Tuber does, that *anything* that has the same concept is 'Based On' what went before, but that means that an F1 car is 'Based on' the Model T

Or the Tesla's based on the Flocken Elektrowagen. Can't remember which EV Henry Ford's missus drove though. WRT DC-X, it was 40 years ago, and achieved more successful landings that the Starship has managed. The thing about progress is it's meant to well, make progress.

[MyffyW]

Re: The project is meeting all of its goals

Wasn't DC-X made of plastic, the same plastic that caught fire when it landed funny? I mean I recall DC-X, and I respect the fact it advanced human knowledge. But SpaceX have actually lofted useful workloads into space ... such as the first roadster in space. I'll get my coat....