Introducing the #SenateLaunchSystem

"the system allowed the #aerospace #industry -- who was getting billions of dollars 💰 to build [the #SLS] -- to tell Congress they could do it by that time," #Garver said, explaining that the industry knew it'd be paid the same amount 💰 every year, #regardless of delays. "There was a #reverse incentive."

#NASA Inspector General Paul Martin : "We saw that the cost-plus contracts that NASA had been using to develop that combined #SLS and #Orion system work to the contractors' rather than NASA's #advantage." https://www.cnet.com/science/space/billions-behind-a-lunar-dream-why-nasas-artemis-i-moon-rocket-may-prove-unsustainable

#Artemis #LaunchCost #SpacePolitics

#Shelby was a frequent #critic of commercial space in general and #SpaceX specifically. He did not believe private companies—especially those that did not do much business in #Alabama 💰 —should receive government funding.
He also held the line in 📆 2019 when #NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine suggested that due to #delays with the rocket's development, it might be better to launch the #Orion spacecraft on SpaceX's #FalconHeavy #rocket 🚀 https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/so-long-richard-shelby-and-thanks-for-all-the-pork

🐖 pork barrel : local projects that are given a lot of #government #money in order to win #votes https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/pork-barrel

#Artemis #SLS #Orion #SpacePolitics #LaunchCost #SenateLaunchSystem

#NYT 📆 Sept. 2011 #Texas is home to #NASA’s Mission Control and #Florida is where NASA’s #rockets are launched from. The two #senators played key roles in writing the NASA blueprint and outlining many #specifics of the rocket they wanted NASA to build, leading critics to #sarcastically call it the #SenateLaunchSystem. Critics note that NASA has announced ambitious rocket plans before, only to cancel them as #costs #escalated and #schedules slipped https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/science/space/15nasa.html

#Huffpost 📆 Apr. 2011 "The best bang for the buck 💵 investment in our future is a system where industrial activities such as carrying freight and building buildings are done by people who do them everywhere else in our society -- the #commercial sector -- rather than an #expensive #costplus single-use government program" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-senate-launch-system_b_843607

#Economist 📆 Aug 24th 2022 "powered by yesterday’s #technology and brought about by yesterday’s #thinking" https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2022/08/24/nasas-space-launch-system-is-yesterdays-rocket

#Artemis #SLS #LaunchCost #SpacePolitics