![]() ![]() “I don’t see the cost going down at this point to be competitive, just given the history and how challenging of a rocket it is to build,” said Cristina Chaplain, former assistant director of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the U.S. Its first and only use so far was last November when it was successfully launched from Florida as part of NASA’s Artemis program that aims to return astronauts to the surface of the moon as early as 2025. The SLS is an impressive sight, resembling an immense dart as it towers as tall as a 32-story building on the launch pad. “We have the capability that we need at the affordability price that we have, so we’re not that interested in some partnership with NASA on the SLS system.”Īs a commercial venture, the SLS could face other challenges including competition from cheaper and reusable rockets such as Starship from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and New Glenn from fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. military’s Space Force, said in an interview. “It’s a capability right now that we, the DoD, don’t need,” Colonel Douglas Pentecost, a senior rocket acquisition official with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) – seen as a potential customer – signaling little interest. ![]() But finding a market for a giant and costly rocket promises to be difficult, with the U.S. space agency is pushing ahead with plans to hand ownership of the Space Launch System (SLS) to a Boeing-Northrup joint venture in the next few years, with a goal of cutting in half the rocket’s price tag – estimated at $2 billion. WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NASA’s plans to turn over its flagship rocket to contractors Boeing and Northrop Grumman to find more buyers and bring down costs faces steep hurdles thanks to meager demand even from the Pentagon and a sprawling supplier network.
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