Senior NASA officials say that the agency’s Space Launch System — the massive rocket designed to propel its ambitious Artemis program to establish a base on the moon — is “unaffordable,” according to a report Thursday from the US Government Accountability Office. The report, which breaks down SLS program expenditures, makes the striking admission that senior NASA officials deem the rocket to be unsustainable “at current cost levels,” and it criticizes what the GAO said is a lack of transparency into the program’s ongoing costs. The report does not name which officials — or how many — at NASA made such claims. A spokesperson at NASA’s headquarters did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, the GAO report does state that NASA “recognizes the need to improve the affordability.” “With input from NASA management, the SLS program has developed a roadmap outlining short-term and long-term strategies that it hopes will result in future cost savings,” the report said. That plan includes efforts to “stabilize the flight schedule,” increase efficiencies, “encourage innovation” and “adjust acquisition strategies to reduce cost risk,” according to GAO. The SLS rocket is at the core of NASA’s Artemis program, the agency’s flagship effort to return humans to the surface of the moon later this decade that also involves various exploratory and science missions aimed at establishing a permanent lunar settlement.
Full story : NASA’s mega moon rocket is ‘unaffordable,’ according to accountability report.
