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EdwardHeisler

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Registered: 2017-09-20

Posts: 357

NASA spends 1 Billion for SLS Launch Tower that "leans and bends"!!!

[Excerpt]

NASA spends $1 billion for a launch tower that leans, may only be used once
kopitiambot
2018-02-21
(Source: arstechnica.com)

On Tuesday and Wednesday Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to tour facilities there and participate in the second meeting of the National Space Council. It is not clear how much of the launch facilities he will see during his visit to Florida, where NASA is spending billions of dollars to build ground systems for the launch of the Space Launch System rocket.

There is one component of the revamped facilities that NASA may be reluctant to show Pence, who in effect oversees all national spaceflight activities as the head of the space council. This is the “mobile launcher” structure, which supports the testing and servicing of the massive SLS rocket, as well as moving it to the launch pad and providing a platform from which it will launch.

According to a new report in NASASpaceflight.com, the expensive tower is “leaning” and “bending.” For now, NASA says, the lean is not sufficient enough to require corrective action, but it is developing contingency plans in case the lean angle becomes steeper.

These defects raise concerns about the longevity of the launch tower and increase the likelihood that NASA will seek additional funding to build a second one. In fact, it is entirely possible that the launch tower may serve only for the maiden flight of the SLS rocket in 2020 and then be cast aside. This would represent a significant waste of resources by the space agency.

A very costly tower

Construction on the structure began nine years ago when NASA needed a mobile launcher for a different rocket, the Ares I vehicle. According to NASA’s inspector general, Paul Martin, the agency spent $234 million to originally build the launch tower. However, after the government’s Ares I and V rockets were canceled due to delays and cost overruns in 2010, NASA was left without much of a use for the large structure, which consists of a two-story base, a 355-foot-tall tower, and facility ground support systems.

In 2011, after Congress directed NASA to build a new large rocket, the SLS, the agency began studying its options to launch the booster. These trade studies found that modifying the existing mobile launcher would cost $54 million, modifying the Space Shuttle Mobile Launcher Platforms would cost $93 million, and constructing a new mobile launch platform would cost $122 million. Ultimately, the agency opted for the lowest-cost option—modifying the Ares mobile launcher—but unfortunately those preliminary cost estimates turned out to be wildly optimistic.

Instead of costing just $54 million, the US Government Accountability Office found that NASA spent $281.8 million revamping the mobile launcher from fiscal years 2012 to 2015, but still the work was not done. The recently released White House budget for fiscal year 2019 reveals that NASA anticipates spending an additional $396.2 million on the mobile launcher from 2015 through the maiden launch of the SLS, probably in 2020.

Therefore, from the tower’s inception in 2009, NASA will have spent $912 million on the mobile launcher it may use for just a single launch of the SLS rocket. Moreover, the agency will have required eight years to modify a launch tower it built in two years.

https://kopitiambot.com/2018/02/21/nasa … used-once/

If the tower bends and leans in the direction you want the rocket to go isn't that a good thing?   And you wouldn't need an elevator to reach the top.   A big forklift might be adequate.    Just askin!   

Last edited by EdwardHeisler (2018-02-20 21:03:08)

SpaceNut

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From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,836

Re: NASA spends 1 Billion for SLS Launch Tower that "leans and bends"!!!

Its a use one and modify as the next sls has to have a different second stage.....

RobertDyck

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From: Winnipeg, Canada

Registered: 2002-08-20

Posts: 7,801

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Re: NASA spends 1 Billion for SLS Launch Tower that "leans and bends"!!!

Bluntly, what I expect is SLS block 1 will launch once for EM-1, block 1B once for EM-2. Then the question of what's next. I have recommended block 2B to deliver a single Mars Direct habitat to the Moon, then on to Mars. Use Falcon Heavy to carry crew to that Moon base. Block 1B and 2B use the same core, and same upper stage. The only difference is boosters.

RobertDyck

Moderator

From: Winnipeg, Canada

Registered: 2002-08-20

Posts: 7,801

Website

Re: NASA spends 1 Billion for SLS Launch Tower that "leans and bends"!!!

How did they build the tower? The tower from Mobile Launcher 1, used for Apollo 11, was cut in pieces and left in a field rusting. Before Shuttle was cancelled there was discussion of rebuilding it as a museum piece. Towers from ML 2 & 3 were used to build the Shuttle era static service structure on launch pads A and B. This looks very much like the Apollo tower, but with propellant feed lines missing and painted. If it is, the top 2 truss levels are missing.