NASA contemplates swapping SLS for BFR

An unexpectedly sensible move.

NASA hopes to test-launch the first Block 1 rocket in June 2020 on a flight called Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). The mission aims to prove SLS is safe and reliable by sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon and back to Earth. A crewed Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) would follow several years later.

But so far NASA has spent about $11.9 billion on SLS, and the agency is projected to need $4-5 billion more than it has planned by 2021. Relatedly, the scheduled launch date for EM-1 in June 2020 is about 2.5 years behind-schedule... Such issues have some experts estimating an average cost of $5 billion per launch of SLS, which is a single-use rocket. Presumably, SpaceX or Blue Origin could launch at a fraction of that price since their upcoming vehicles are reusable.

2.5 years is nothing for a large project like this, but the development cost is silly. The launch cost is offensive. I believe it's worth investing large amounts of money in manned space exploration... but c'mon, not that much. $5 billion per launch is nuts.

But agency leaders are already contemplating the retirement of the Space Launch System (SLS), as the towering and yet-to-fly government rocket is called, and the Orion space capsule that'll ride on top. NASA is anticipating the emergence of two reusable, and presumably more affordable, mega-rockets that private aerospace companies are creating. Those systems are the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), which is being built by Elon Musk's SpaceX; and the New Glenn, a launcher being built by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.

"I think our view is that if those commercial capabilities come online, we will eventually retire the government system, and just move to a buying launch capacity on those [rockets]," Stephen Jurczyk, NASA's associate administrator, told Business Insider at The Economist Space Summit on November 1.

https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-sls-replacement-spacex-bfr-blue-origin-new-glenn-2018-11