Space Launch System info

[Deleted]

For "space" info, my go-to source is Eric Berger at Ars Technica.  Here's his piece just now on the Artemis scrubbed-again launch ... and why.  Bottom-line ... this has been a political pork-pie, and expensive and overdue and troublesome as a result.  Going commercial instead would likely result in something sooner, reliable, newer, and cheaper.

arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/years-after-shuttle-nasa-rediscovers-the-perils-of-liquid-hydrogen/

If you are interested in global rocket launch news, Eric produces a weekly article on small, medium, and heavy rocket activity which appears each Friday in Ars Technica or via a free emailed newsletter.

--- Frank
NASA-GSFC 1966-1978

[Norbert]

Good piece, albeit depressing. 

Snippets:

"So why does NASA use liquid hydrogen as a fuel for its rockets, if it is so difficult to work with, and there are easier to handle alternatives such as methane or kerosene? One reason is that hydrogen is a very efficient fuel, meaning that it provides better "gas mileage" when used in rocket engines. However, the real answer is that Congress mandated that NASA continue to use space shuttle main engines as part of the SLS rocket program.

...

"Among the idea's opponents was Lori Garver, who served as NASA's deputy administrator at the time. She said the decision to use space shuttle components for the agency's next generation rocket seemed like a terrible idea, given the challenges of working with hydrogen demonstrated over the previous three decades.

""They took finicky, expensive programs that couldn't fly very often, stacked them together differently, and said now, all of a sudden, it's going to be cheap and easy," she told Ars in August. "Yeah, we've flown them before, but they've proven to be problematic and challenging. This is one of the things that boggled my mind. What about it was going to change? I attribute it to this sort of group think, the contractors and the self-licking ice cream cone."