Finally, we know production costs for SLS and Orion, and they’re wild

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/03/nasa-inspector-general-says-sls-costs-are-unsustainable/

by dotnet00 • 4 years ago

14 8 4 years ago

arstechnica.com

dotnet002• 4 years ago

To summarize:

Per Launch:

- $2.2B for SLS

- $568M for ground systems

- $1B for Orion

- $300M for Orion's Service Module

NASA's Inspector General plainly says "a price tag that strikes us as unsustainable.".

The absurd costs of the program relative to results produced are I think well known to enthusiasts, but the actual numbers are still crazy to see. Nice that at least someone at NASA is talking openly about how unsustainable this is for Artemis.

wmf2• 4 years ago

And the total program cost will be $93B for 10 missions.

dotnet002• 4 years ago

I interpreted that as $93B for everything including Gateway, Human Landing System and all the commercial science landers due to start launching this year.

Although yes, the vast majority of that is still SLS and Orion. From my count ~$44.5B has been spent on SLS and Orion already.

avmich• 4 years ago

NASA's Inspector General plainly says "a price tag that strikes us as unsustainable.".

"Unsustainable" means "it cannot be sustained". That is up to Congress - if it comes with requests and money, NASA will do - will have to do.

Now the question is, do we, the people, want to spend our billions this way? Are congressmen and congresswomen aware about our opinion on this subject?

wmf2• 4 years ago

They're aware that they haven't been voted out of office.

ohiovr• 4 years ago

Nasa has to scrap operational plans every 8 years of the rotation of Congress. And when they do have plans in hand, they have to do everything like some kind of ala cart ordering while Russia or Space X can simply manufacture everything themselves in the same organizational unit.

mrjangles• 4 years ago

Probably the most important part:

Martin also said NASA is obscuring costs that it is spending on the Artemis program and that, in aggregate, his office believes NASA will spend $93 billion from 2012 to 2025 on the Artemis program.

Finally, we know production costs for SLS and Orion, and they’re wild

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