Audit Results: SLS Program is Unaffordable

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the SLS. (NASA)

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently completed a review of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), which is the cornerstone of the Artemis program. GAO assessed the extent to which (1) NASA has established plans to measure the SLS program costs post-Artemis I, and (2) the program has made progress with its plans to reduce projected SLS costs.

The GAO report, Space Launch System: Cost Transparency Needed to Monitor Program Affordability, highlights a number of continuing issues related to project costs and budgeting.

So what is the bottom line? This quote is most concerning: “Senior NASA officials told GAO that at current cost levels, the SLS program is unaffordable.”

The SLS is the vehicle that is supposed to demonstrate our ability to return to the Moon as well as our readiness for a Mars mission. But all of this is contingent on continued funding from Congress, and the congressional auditors have raised a red flag.

I expect you could find similar audit issues with the earlier Apollo missions as well as other space missions, yet NASA does not need to give Congress a reason to put money elsewhere. Let’s hope NASA’s leaders take the audit seriously and show some progress to keep all of the parties happy and the funding alive.

Another Crew Heads for the ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft blasts off to the ISS from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on September 15, 2023. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Earlier today, US astronaut astronaut Loral O’Hara as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub departed from Kazakhstan on a Soyuz rocket that will take them to the International Space Station (ISS). The space station will be crowded again until the three relieved crew members, including US astronaut Frank Rubio, can return to Earth.

You can watch today’s launch at this NASA site on YouTube. You can also follow the mission via NASA’s blog.

Pic of the Week: Astronaut Frank Rubio Still at Work on the ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA astronauts Frank Rubio (left) and Josh Cassada (back to camera) working outside the ISS last November. (NASA TV)

This week’s image shows astronaut Frank Rubio hard at work last year outside the International Space Station (ISS). He has now exceeded the U.S. space duration record, which was 355 days. All of this was unplanned, come as the result of a faulty Russian capsule that kept him on the station longer than his scheduled six month tour.

Mr. Rubio is set to return to Earth on September 27. At that point, he will have spent 371 days in space.

This CBS News segment discusses some of the risks related to a longer stay on the station.

Damn it, Jim! I’m a Doctor, Not a Spider!

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Dr. McCoy on the television series Star Trek. (CBS / Paramount)

The Star Trek name and characters have been thrown around in popular culture for years, but now scientists have locked onto them. A new group of spiders, part of the Roddenberryus genus (yes, that’s right), have been named Kirk, McCoy and Spock.

If you do not believe me, take a look at this article in the New York Times, “It’s a Spider, Not a Doctor, Captain or Vulcan.” The article quotes Dr. Bonaldo, a researcher at the Paraense Emílio Goeldi Museum in Brazil, who made this statement about the newly-named spiders:

They somewhat resemble Star Trek spaceships…Arachnologists have a long tradition of giving interesting scientific names for new genera and species, as most of us believe it is a great opportunity to acknowledge people or draw parallels with pop culture and local customs.

I expect Dr. McCoy would be yelling for weeks about this one.