LHX - NASA to Taxpayers: The Boeing/Lockheed Space Launch System Is Unaffordable
2023-09-24 08:08:00 ET
No doubt about it: NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) is an impressive sight.
Standing 322 feet tall, the Boeing (NYSE: BA) -built SLS stretches twice the length of the space shuttle and is taller than a football field ripped from the Earth and tipped vertical. Powered by a massive L3Harris (NYSE: LHX) engine core and two solid rocket boosters from Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) , SLS puts out 12% more take-off thrust than the Saturn V rocket that first sent men to the moon.
Yet for at least the past half-decade, industry insiders, and even members of Congress, have wondered if the SLS is truly worth it -- "it" being the high and ever-rising cost of SLS, which may necessitate canceling SLS production and switching to a cheaper rocket for Project Artemis, NASA's multidecade program to send humans back to the moon.
For further details see:
NASA to Taxpayers: The Boeing/Lockheed Space Launch System Is "Unaffordable"