Will the SLS ever fly?

[Vonar]

None of those potential payloads are funded or planned. If any of them were given a green light today, none of them could be ready in less than 5 to 10 years, which means that SLS is going to sit around for years waiting for a payload to be ready. In all likeliness, it won't, because the Administration will cancel it. Taxpayers don't want to pay infrastructure and employees to sit around for years waiting for a payload.

SpaceX is a private subcontractor working for the government. It's still the taxpayer footing the bill.

Now your asking me to project the future, and tell you if the yet unknown Presidents of the United States will have a policy that is pro or against America having space capabilities. We don't know who will make up the future administration, what their policies will be on space exploration, or how future events will shape their policies on space exploration.

For example if Hillary wins in 2016 will she use her 2008 election space platform as a base for actual government policy? which I should note called for reversing cuts made to NASA's budget and implementing a balanced strategy of robust human spaceflight and robotic exploration. Perhaps. If Romney or Ryan runs and gasp somehow wins in 2016 will he then turn to a private sector "solution?" Could happen. Someone else could run and refocus the SLS and Orion to service a future Moon base or gut the entire agency. There are too many variables for me or anyone else to accurately say a certain event will or will not happen.

However keep in mind that things for NASA are not as grim as you are claiming that they are. The country is trending blue, and a overwhelming percentage of minorities consistently vote Democrat. Minorities who by the middle of the century will outnumber whites in America. These trends suggest that if the Republicans don't make major changes to their own election platforms that NASA will have the backing of a Democratic President, and perhaps even a Democratic Congress well into the middle of this century.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Vonar

[DaRocketCat]

Plenty of white people vote Democrat too you know...

The upcoming midterm elections are very important.

[Vanamonde]

Politics, certain politicians, and how various races supposedly vote is not a subject we are going to get into on this forum. Please avoid those aspects of the situation before the inevitable ugly arguments start.

[Kinglet]

Sigh, ksp forums still remains a place just for ksp, space flight and video games.

[griffin247]

first launch is in december, last week saw the orion caspule do a full parachute test droped from a plane

[Nibb31]

Now your asking me to project the future, and tell you if the yet unknown Presidents of the United States will have a policy that is pro or against America having space capabilities. We don't know who will make up the future administration, what their policies will be on space exploration, or how future events will shape their policies on space exploration.

You're wrong. It takes approximately a decade to design and build a spacecraft, from the initial funding decision to the launch. Even if the budget for a payload was voted today, it still couldn't fly until at least 5 years after SLS is operational. Which means that all the NASA employees and infrastructure that are needed to operate SLS will be sitting around doing secondary work and costing millions of dollars while waiting for a payload. Millions of dollars that won't be available to build the payloads.

Maybe we will get some lunar flyby stunts, but there will be questions raised in Congress and in the public about the wiseness of maintaining SLS capability for only a handful of payloads.

If Congress wants SLS to be useful, then they should be funding missions and payloads NOW, at the same time. The problem is, they are not interested in SLS being useful or in space exploration. All they want is to keep NASA money flowing into their jurisdictions.

first launch is in december, last week saw the orion caspule do a full parachute test droped from a plane

December is the EFT-1 launch of an Orion prototype on Delta IV. It's not SLS.

[griffin247]

You're wrong. It takes approximately a decade to design and build a spacecraft, from the initial funding decision to the launch. Even if the budget for a payload was voted today, it still couldn't fly until at least 5 years after SLS is operational. Which means that all the NASA employees and infrastructure that are needed to operate SLS will be sitting around doing secondary work and costing millions of dollars while waiting for a payload. Millions of dollars that won't be available to build the payloads.

Maybe we will get some lunar flyby stunts, but there will be questions raised in Congress and in the public about the wiseness of maintaining SLS capability for only a handful of payloads.

If Congress wants SLS to be useful, then they should be funding missions and payloads NOW, at the same time. The problem is, they are not interested in SLS being useful or in space exploration. All they want is to keep NASA money flowing into their jurisdictions.

December is the EFT-1 launch of an Orion prototype on Delta IV. It's not SLS.

well my scorce says differant , why is the SLS launch tower already built and operational if its not gona be used? It drawfs the apollo and shuttle towers lol . any howzzzz who knows what really goes on at nasa it is goverment funded Company afterall and disiformation is god in the states espacally with goverment agenticies. i have a freind that works for esa and he says Dragon x will beat the SLS into a manned orbit mision around mars or a rock of ice

Edited June 30, 2014 by griffin247

[Nibb31]

well my scorce says differant , why is the SLS launch tower already built and operational if its not gona be used? It drawfs the apollo and shuttle towers lol .

The 1st flight of SLS is Orion EM-1 and is scheduled for 2017 as an unmanned lunar flyby.

The 2nd flight of SLS is Orion EM-2 in 2021, maybe.

The launch tower is for the Orion EFT-1 flight, which launches on a Delta IV. It has nothing to do with SLS. Also, the EFT-1 launch tower is a boilerplate, not the real thing.

i have a freind that works for esa and he says Dragon x will beat the SLS into a manned orbit mision around mars or a rock of ice

You're comparing apples and oranges. Dragon is a capsule. Dragon X doesn't exist. SLS is a rocket. ESA is unrelated to either.

any howzzzz who knows what really goes on at nasa it is goverment funded Company afterall and disiformation is god in the states espacally with goverment agenticies.

It's a government funded agency, not a company. And as such, it's about as transparent as it gets. Pretty much all of NASA's activities, including their plans for SLS, are in the public domain and on http://www.nasa.gov/

[griffin247]

The 1st flight of SLS is Orion EM-1 and is scheduled for 2017 as an unmanned lunar flyby.

The 2nd flight of SLS is Orion EM-2 in 2021, maybe.

The launch tower is for the Orion EFT-1 flight, which launches on a Delta IV. It has nothing to do with SLS. Also, the EFT-1 launch tower is a boilerplate, not the real thing.

You're comparing apples and oranges. Dragon is a capsule. Dragon X doesn't exist. SLS is a rocket. ESA is unrelated to either.

It's a government funded agency, not a company. And as such, it's about as transparent as it gets. Pretty much all of NASA's activities, including their plans for SLS, are in the public domain and on http://www.nasa.gov/

lol yes i know about nasa site but what everybody forgets and i say this from real life experances , is that all media and i do mean all media is controled by the goverments , they will only tell us what they want us to see and read , no more no less, how do you know that a neution star exploded in the distant past and the shock wave is only 5 yrs from us , you really think they wud tell us ????? or in a million yrs our galazy wont even be here cause its gona hit the andromada galazy.....but i digrece cause everybody knows that one anyway . did u know the presidents brain is still missing no i am not talking about dear old ronnie but your late flip top head president.....yep its missing because the evidance is to daming and pointing to his own green betret regiment which he set up. cud go on but never belive what you see and hear in all media.

[Seret]

Yeah, you might want to cool it on the conspiracy theory stuff. This forum clamps down hard on that (and with good reason).

[Red Iron Crown]

lol yes i know about nasa site but what everybody forgets and i say this from real life experances , is that all media and i do mean all media is controled by the goverments , they will only tell us what they want us to see and read , no more no less, how do you know that a neution star exploded in the distant past and the shock wave is only 5 yrs from us , you really think they wud tell us ????? or in a million yrs our galazy wont even be here cause its gona hit the andromada galazy.....but i digrece cause everybody knows that one anyway . did u know the presidents brain is still missing no i am not talking about dear old ronnie but your late flip top head president.....yep its missing because the evidance is to daming and pointing to his own green betret regiment which he set up. cud go on but never belive what you see and hear in all media.

I agree that one should take everything one gets from the media with a grain of salt, but the rest of this post is conspiracy theorist nonsense.

Why is so much reporting on the Snowden NSA leaks happening if the media are so tightly controlled by the government?

[griffin247]

sorry i wasnt thinking, this old warhorse takes it all back no offence ment .

[Kinglet]

Our galaxy will merge with andromeda. Why do people think everything will just go boom and the galaxies just die?

It is Very, very unlikely that our solar system actually hits something or gets cooked by another star.

[Seret]

Our galaxy will merge with andromeda. Why do people think everything will just go boom and the galaxies just die?

It is Very, very unlikely that our solar system actually hits something or gets cooked by another star.

Galaxies collide all the time anyway. IIRC there are several small galaxies colliding with the Milky Way right now.

[Kinglet]

Galaxies collide all the time anyway. IIRC there are several small galaxies colliding with the Milky Way right now.

Galaxies collide to form even bigger galaxies which collide to make even bigger galaxies which coll...

One day there will only be a few massive galaxies left.

[Kryten]

Only one galaxy (andromeda) is actually moving towards us, excepting our small satellite ones. The rest are far away enough for expansion of space to overcome gravity.

[cantab]

Our galaxy will merge with andromeda. Why do people think everything will just go boom and the galaxies just die?

Probably because so many writers refer to galactic "collisions". Personally I do prefer the the terms galactic merger or galactic interaction, I think they're less likely to mislead people.