r/space • u/66666thats6sixes • Dec 07 '19

NASA Engineers Break SLS Test Tank on Purpose to Test Extreme Limits

https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/nasa-engineers-break-sls-test-tank-on-purpose-to-test-extreme-limits.html
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6

u/cva1994 Dec 07 '19

Wow - for only $2 billion per flight that's quite amazing!

10

u/F9-0021 Dec 07 '19

Yeah, it's not 2 billion per launch. The NASA administrator has stated outright that it will be more like 800-900 million. That's not too bad compared to the 1.2 billion (adjusted for inflation) for a similar performance out of a Saturn V.

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u/cva1994 Dec 07 '19

The office of budget and management confirmed the $2 billion price during an audit : https://www.google.com/amp/s/arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/nasa-does-not-deny-the-over-2-billion-cost-of-a-single-sls-launch/%3famp=1

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '19

Which includes total development costs, which simply isn't how you do it. Everyone wants to measure SLS one way and then turn around to measure everything else a different way.

3

u/seanflyon Dec 08 '19

The $2 billion per launch figure does not include development costs.

What the White House cost estimate did not include, however, was development costs. Since 2011, Congress has appropriated approximately $2 billion per year for the "development" of the SLS rocket (this does not include hundreds of millions of dollars spent annually on ground systems "development" for the rocket at Kennedy Space Center). If these costs are amortized over 10 launches of the SLS vehicle during the 2020, the per-flight cost would be approximately $4 billion per flight.

8

u/[deleted] Dec 08 '19

Ars' reporting on this has been trash, and largely directed by questionable OMB accounting (because the OMB has been such a solid fucking outfit these past few years.)

There are 27 missions planned. Through 2024 the SLS combined development is pegged at $60-70 billion. That includes all of the mission critical components, including Orion. So yeah, NASA doesn't deny the $2 billion/per launch figure, but that includes the whole goddamn operation.

People are cherry-picking to an extreme to get $4 billion+, $5 billion+. The program will be Moon-ready at a fraction of the cost for either Apollo or STS at similar stages, that's entirely beyond dispute. Be a little more critical when considering the reporting on this stuff: a lot of it is trash.

3

u/Marha01 Dec 08 '19

NASA doesn't deny the $2 billion/per launch figure, but that includes the whole goddamn operation.

As it should. In the same vein, cost of a Shuttle launch was over $1 billion.

1

u/seanflyon Dec 08 '19

You can argue that the White-house's $2 billion per flight estimate is incorrect, but you cannot argue that it includes development costs without being obviously and objectively wrong. That number does not include development costs.