NASA Administrator Charles Bolden speaks out against the Falcon 9 rocket.
NASA
Charlie Bolden, a four-time astronaut who served as NASA’s administrator from mid-2009 to early 2017. During that time, he oversaw the construction and initial development of the agency’s large space system rocket.
Although some NASA officials, such as then-Deputy Director Lori Garver, were wary of the cost of the rocket – ડ 20 billion has been poured into the development of the launch vehicle based on current technology – Bolden was the defender of the big rocket, which he called a lynchpin. The agency plans to send humans to the moon or Mars outside of low-Earth orbit. He also rejected attempts by commercial space companies such as SpaceX to create comparable technology.
When I sat down for an interview with Bolden at the Johnson Space Center in 2014, I asked why NASA was investing so much in SLS rockets when SpaceX was using its own funds to develop low-cost Falcon heavy rockets. His response at the time was: “Let’s be very honest. We do not have a commercially available heavy-lift vehicle. The Falcon 9 could come heavy any day. He is on the drawing board right now. SLS is real. “
Two years later, in 2016, Bolden said he still did not believe commercial companies were in the process. “If you’re talking about launch vehicles, we believe that our responsibility to the nation is to take care of things that ordinary people can’t do, or don’t want to do, like big launch vehicles.” Not a big fan of investments. “
Since then, a lot has changed. In February, 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy Rocket for the first time. It has flown twice more successfully since then, and will play a role in NASA’s future research plans. Meanwhile, the SLS rocket, originally due to launch in 2017, is now at least delayed until the end of 2021.
As a result, Bolden seems to have changed his mind. In an interview with Politico Published in the publication’s space newsletter on Friday morning, Bolden was asked what would happen over the next four years.
“SLS will go away,” he said. “It could be removed during the Biden administration or the subsequent Trump administration … because at some point commercial entities will catch up. They’re really going to build a type of heavy lift launch vehicle like the SLS that will fly much cheaper than NASA than the SLS.” That’s the way it works. “
Bolden is a popular and influential voice in the space community, but it no longer has a direct meaning in US space policy. Maybe because he no longer has to answer to Congress for NASA’s budget, he’s also free to speak his mind. In any case, their comments reflect a common sentiment in the space community – at least outside of traditional contractors like Boeing and Northrop Grumman who directly benefit from CLS development – the SLS rocket will eventually go away.
The appearance of SLS outside the bubble
The Falcon is not as capable as the heavy SLS rocket, but its success has clearly shown that private companies can build larger, more powerful rockets. Moreover, it is not only SpaceX, but also Blue Origin with its New Glen Booster, which seeks to build heavy lift rockets with private money. And while they are rivals, Elon Musk of SpaceX and Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin both agree that rockets need to be able to be reused in order to be practical. S.L.S. It will cost about the 2 billion to start and then fall into the ocean.
If you’re wondering what the commercial space proponents really think about the SLS rocket because of its cost and costs, here’s what comes from a senior official at the new space company:
“If Santa Claus arrives and says, ‘I have good news. It works now and you can launch tomorrow. Everything is done. You are going to launch tomorrow.’ … He still doesn’t get us to the moon.Even if he achieves everything he achieves his goal, he doesn’t get people to the moon.He definitely doesn’t get to the moon and he doesn’t get humans completely.On Mars. . “
When Congress envisioned a space launch system rocket in 2010 and directed NASA to build it, they were making two bets. First, they claim that new space companies like SpaceX will fail. This was a reasonable bet at the time, as most of the rockets that SpaceX tried to land in space had been lost. Second, they claim that traditional companies like Boeing would be better at building larger rockets.
The congressional legislators who created the SLS જેની which began with Florida Senator Bill Nelson and Texas Senator K. Bey Hutchison, and soon joined Alabama Senator Richard Shelby – lost both bets. So now, NASA is building a huge, cost-effective rocket that taxpayers have spent billions of dollars on. Congress is as committed as ever to both the budget and public statements of support. However, the more new rockets fly, the more difficult it will be to maintain this support.
Ironically, NASA and SLS prime contractor Boeing are no longer competing with the Falcon Heavy. SpaceX beat them 2.5 years ago. .Lata, NASA is competing with SpaceX Next Rocket, a super heavy booster that will propel the starship into orbit. SpaceX has not built a single part of its super heavy rocket – which is bigger, more powerful, much cheaper and reusable than the SLS – but the vehicle is likely to launch into orbit in 2021 before the decade-old SLS.
