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SLS: A Rocket NASA Doesn't Need and Can't (Won't) Build?

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
June 7, 2011
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NASA’s uncertain future: New rocket design in works, but its mission is unclear, Orlando Sentinel
“I don’t think we need it. I don’t think we can afford to operate it. I think it will be rarely used and expensive to maintain,” said Alan Stern, a former NASA associate administrator. “The most likely possibility is that it [the rocket] is unfortunately going to collapse under its own weight in a couple years.” Already, NASA has told Congress that it can’t build the rocket and its companion crew capsule by the 2017 deadline with the money — at least $14 billion over the next five years — it has been given. More seriously, NASA hasn’t decided where it wants the rocket and capsule to go. Agency officials talk constantly about the ultimate goal — Mars — but that trip is likely decades away. Few are talking about what to do in the meantime.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.