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Exploration

NASA Begins SLS Preliminary Design Review

By Marc Boucher
NASA Watch
June 19, 2013
Filed under

NASA’s Space Launch System Program Kicks Off Preliminary Design Review, NASA
“NASA is beginning a preliminary design review for its Space Launch System (SLS). This major program assessment will allow development of the agency’s new heavy-lift rocket to move from concept to initial design.
The preliminary design review process includes meticulous, detailed analyses of the entire launch vehicle. Representatives from NASA, its contractor partners and experts from across the aerospace industry validate elements of the rocket to ensure they can be safely and successfully integrated.
… We are on track and meeting all the milestones necessary to fly in 2017.”

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9 responses to “NASA Begins SLS Preliminary Design Review”

  1. mfwright says:
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    All I got to say if they build this thing, I sure hope it will launch on schedule without countless delays so I can easily plan my vacation schedule to watch it in person. i.e. Shuttle launches with 100K+ people were like carnivals from Titusville to Cocoa Beach.

    • Jason Bachelor says:
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      You can never design out all launch delay possibilities, especially weather in Florida.

  2. Johnhouboltsmyspiritanimal says:
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    didn’t James Webb claim they were on track even through CDR before admitting launch was going to slip from 2010 to 2018? saying you are on track and proving it are sometimes two very different things at NASA.

  3. Gonzo_Skeptic says:
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    “We are on track and meeting all the milestones necessary to fly in 2017.”

    Hopefully they will figure out the “to where” part before then.

    • mattmcc80 says:
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      The “to where” part for the 2017 flight is known, tossing an unmanned Orion around the moon. Assuming that flight and the 2021 Apollo 8 redeux both occurr, the bigger question is what they plan on doing with this thing after that, and where the money’s going to come from. I’ll be very surprised if SLS is used in any meaningful manner before 2026.

  4. LPHartswick says:
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    You know, you guys really fatigue me, it’s the same song over and over again. You’re seriously telling me that smart guys like you can’t figure out what to do with the SLS (a.k.a. BFR) once it’s built. I have a few modest suggestions. How about a replacement for Hubble? Or, maybe you’ll want to build a more useful space station in a high equatorial orbit? Or, maybe you want to live to really large fuel depots to the L1 or L2, that is once you get the boil off issues worked out. Or how about returning to the moon, because you know we didn’t cover the entire surface with just 6 landings. Or, maybe instead of just sending one rover to Mars, you send three or four to Mars orbit, and pick and choose your landing sites? You know, you’re right I can’t think of anything that we could do with the SLS.

    • cb450sc says:
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      Sounds great. Who is paying for all that stuff? You could make the same argument about our non-existent fleet of hundreds of Space Shuttles and Saturn V’s.

      • LPHartswick says:
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        You know, one day governments will. That’s why the were instituted in the first place..to do the BIG THINGS that individuals can’t do. We seem to have forgotten that and so have our politicians. Things like highway systems, power grids, nuclear energy, national or might I say global defense; and all the structures of our civil society.

  5. Spaceman888 says:
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    You have got to wonder if anyone actually adds up all the money and all the promises NASA consumes and spouts as they really achieve very little. At $18 billion a year you have got to wonder what these folks actually bring to the table that is of any tangible value. It’s either under tight wraps or this is the biggest con going. When will people realize this agency can’t even reproduce the past let alone carve a path to the future. Actually, the whole thing is pretty sad as it speaks to a country that is not only in decline, but in self-denial as well.