[url=http://meincmagazine.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30340391#p30340391:3m9td8hm said:
jbode[/url]":3m9td8hm]AR got a contract to start producing a new, expendable version of the RS-25.
Yeah, but have you followed the progress? I'd be willing to bet no newly built engines ever fly. They need too much money and it's always easier to push RS-25E back in favor of getting the initial SLS out the door, which means it'll be headed for an engine cliff and nobody cares because going to space was never the point of SLS.
[url=http://meincmagazine.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30340391#p30340391:3m9td8hm said:
jbode[/url]":3m9td8hm]SDLV looked like a fast way to build a new launcher on paper
No it didn't. Anyone who thought that after Constellation wasn't paying attention.
[url=http://meincmagazine.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30340391#p30340391:3m9td8hm said:
jbode[/url]":3m9td8hm]but I wonder if a clean-sheet design with a kerolox booster and hydrolox upper stage(s) (and no solids) wouldn't ultimately have been faster and cheaper.
That wouldn't have met the primary SLS design requirement of funding ATK.
[url=http://meincmagazine.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30340757#p30340757:3m9td8hm said:
new2mac[/url]":3m9td8hm]The public scrutiny will be immense.
Won't matter.
[url=http://meincmagazine.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30340757#p30340757:3m9td8hm said:
new2mac[/url]":3m9td8hm]There is no way in hell SLS will survive.
I think that's true, but mostly by virtue of the fact that the moribund industrial base isn't capable of actually building rockets anymore, no matter how much money. If it flies it'll be on the stock of original engines and it'll wind down after that. It's a paper rocket even if they build it.
SpaceX BFR is too much of an unknown at this point to anticipate how that will play out. Also depends on how much space activity shifts around the new private launch capabilities, how much commercial crew does, etc.
[url=http://meincmagazine.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30341025#p30341025:3m9td8hm said:
Statistical[/url]":3m9td8hm]If the SLS had to survive on its merits it would have died on the drawing board. Congress just gave the SLS program MORE money than it needs.
Exactly, primary design criteria is to keep the lights on everywhere that the shuttle spent money.
[url=http://meincmagazine.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30341025#p30341025:3m9td8hm said:
Statistical[/url]":3m9td8hm]Sadly the SLS isn't going anywhere. At best it will be a marginal program with only one launch every year or so but it will still serve its intended purpose which is to dump tens of billions to the Shuttle contractors for another couple decades.
I think it'll peter out in the nearer term than that, but yeah, launching was never the purpose of SLS.