Despite these generous funding grants, Martin says that design work for the massive launch tower was still unfinished as of May. The space agency had already committed $435.6 million to the project as of this April. NASA Had To Shoulder Millions of Dollars of Project's Cost This mission is scheduled to launch in 2026, however due to delays in earlier Artemis flights, it is more likely to launch in 2027 or 2028. This is because NASA plans to launch lunar missions on the more powerful, upgraded version of the SLS rocket beginning with the Artemis IV mission. The space agency claims that it had no choice but to proceed with the tower's design and construction in order to achieve a deadline for its lunar missions. This will almost certainly result in increased expenses, increasing the price of the second mobile launch tower past $1 billion, Ars Technica reported. Read More: NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Has a Dead Sensor - Can It Be Fixed? NASA Plans To Continue With This Projectĭespite this, NASA pushed for the building of a second mobile launch tower to be completed by 2026, and requested that design work on the tower be completed before the rocket's final needs were known. The project's new cost estimate is $960 million.įurthermore, according to Martin, NASA handed the contract to Bechtel before finalizing the specs for the SLS rocket's upper stage. The project, for example, is already years behind schedule, the launcher is too heavy, and the entire thing is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. However, the report noted that the contractor made a slew of errors. The contract for the ML-2 mobile launcher was expected to cost $383 million. The 118-meter tower will support the Artemis IV mission's fueling and liftoff, as stated previously. (Photo : NASA OIG presentation of ML-2 project information)Ĭapability Comparison of ML-1 and ML-2 NASA's Rocket Mobile Launcher Encountered Various ProblemsĪs per Ars Technica, NASA awarded the engineering firm Bechtel a cost-plus contract three years ago for the design and construction of the mobile launch tower.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |