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Is NASA’s Giant Rocket Ready for the Moon?
NASA seem ever more unlikely to reach the Moon by 2025
What to make of the delays to the SLS? NASA has persistently delayed the testing and launch of their mammoth new rocket, pushing the first launch date from the end of last year to no earlier than August this year. Even that goal looks unlikely — and that, in turn, makes NASA’s attempt to reach the Moon by 2025 look ever more impossible.
In April NASA rolled the SLS out to the launch pad for a wet dress rehearsal — a set of tests that should have brought the rocket to within ten seconds of a launch. A series of faults stopped that happening, and NASA was left scrambling for fixes. By mid-April, however, the space agency decided to return the rocket to the hanger for further work.
Some of the issues appear to have been fixed, and NASA now plans to try the rehearsal again. Recent reports suggest the SLS will return to the pad at the end of May, with tests taking place in early June. If all goes to plan — a big if — the rocket could be ready for the first test launch in August. That launch would send the Orion capsule towards the Moon, the first such flight since the days of the Apollo programme half a century ago.
NASA has come under some criticism for the frequent delays and high cost of the SLS. Unlike…
