Meanwhile, over the same period, nearly $50 billion will be spent on upgrades to NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, Orion deep space crew capsule, and ground support systems by the unpiloted Artemis I mission in 2022, according to one report. It was expensive. Analysis by the Planetary Society. That amount now stands at just under $60 billion.
The core stage of NASA’s second Space Launch System rocket, scheduled to fly on the Artemis II mission, was lifted vertically and placed into a support fixture this week inside the vehicle assembly building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: NASA
Artemis II, the next flight in NASA’s Artemis program, is scheduled to launch in 2026 on an SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, carrying a crew of four astronauts around the far side of the moon and back to Earth. be. Artemis III, as currently envisioned by NASA, will launch on another SLS and Orion as early as mid-2027, docking with SpaceX’s Starship lander near the moon for a final descent to the moon’s south pole. It’s planned.
The SLS rocket has no reusable parts, and NASA’s inspector general estimated last year that the next three launches by the Artemis crew would each cost $4.2 billion.— exceeds the agency’s total spending to help SpaceX fund the development of its Crew Dragon spacecraft.
“We are entering an era of great experimentation,” Isaacman said Wednesday.
The broader context of Isaacman’s comments on Wednesday suggests that he may have meant this not just in a technical sense, but also about the way NASA does business. The incoming Trump administration will certainly maintain NASA’s goal of landing humans on the moon, but the agency’s new leadership will be unable to evaluate how to achieve this goal without the budget burden of the SLS rocket. It is widely expected. One solution might be to combine elements from different rocket companies, such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance, to recreate the capabilities of the Space Launch System.
“Right now, Dragon has the best spacecraft in the world, and American astronauts fly it to the space station regularly every six months,” Isaacman said. “But when Starship comes online, We are on the brink of a light switch moment.”
SpaceX has conducted six full-scale test flights of its Starship rocket, with the next scheduled for January. SpaceX demonstrated the first capture of the rocket’s giant superheavy booster after launch in October. Next year, SpaceX aims to capture Starship’s upper stage as it returns from low-Earth orbit, dock the two ships and begin refueling tests in space.
NASA plans to conduct a human evaluation of Starship’s moon landing, and SpaceX plans to eventually use Starship to launch and land humans on Earth. Once operational, Starship will be able to transport payloads of 100 to 150 tons into low Earth orbit and, with the advent of orbital refueling, carry the same payload mass to the Moon, Mars, or other destinations. You can.
“What happens when industry starts mass-producing spacecraft from multiple factories? SpaceX has great vision for this, but so does Blue Origin. There are,” Isaacman said. “I call it a light switch moment where a lot of things change because a lot of people are going into space at once.”
NASA’s spending levels relative to the overall federal budget peaked in 1966, when funding for the space program accounted for 4.4 percent of total government spending. In recent years, this percentage has fallen to around 0.5%.
“If you could write a check this big, we could do some pretty amazing things,” Isaacman said. “We can go to the moon, we can bring people back safely, and that’s great, but we now have some of this funding privately provided through commercial efforts, and we can bring people back safely. However, we are entering a new era that will benefit everyone.”
