Space Launch System (SLS) Configurations
An artists concept video of the launch if the new Space Launch System (SLS) 70t manned launch vehicle has been released. The video is of very high quality and will have to do in filling your need to see a manned U.S. launch until 2017 when the real thing is launched. The President of the United Stats set a goal to return the U.S. manned launch capability by then.
The SLS is the replacement for the capability to put astronauts in space the United States lost when the Space Shuttle was retired. There are several versions of the SLS with the largest akin to the venerable Saturn 5 in capability set to launch in 2030. At a cost of over 40 billion dollars to produce the SLS program could go the way of canceled rocket programs such as Ares, but so far it is continuing to make progress including passing the Preliminary Design Review or PDR, There is more competition now than in the 1960s from the commercial sector which could in the end be capable of doing the same job for a fraction of the cost. With our hopes of a manned return to the moon tied to the SLS the odds are fading that many of the people reading this article will live to see that again.
Hopefully, this fantasy video will be the closest to reality that proposed monster gets. Unfortunately, billions have already been wasted on it and its pieces. I’m hoping the ashes of a few congress critters get mixed into that proposed 2017 flight’s SRB’s should it actually ever fly. It certainly will be the death knell of NASA and U.S. science in space.