Boeing is collaborating with NASA to construct the Space Launch System (SLS), a class of rockets which is supposed that in the future will transport men and payload to deep space. If successful, it would be the most potent rocket system that has ever been constructed. On a website developed by the aerospace giant, they also overshadowed Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon Heavy, labeling it as “too small” for exploration of the depths of the Universe.
“The launch of the Falcon Heavy was a success in February but the SpaceX rocket is a smaller type of rocket that cannot meet NASA’s deep space needs. Once the SLS built at Boeing is operational, it will be the most powerful rocket ever built,” stated Boeing’s representatives.
The company is in the process of issuing such statements on the basis of a report that Bill Gerstenmaier, the NASA’s head of manned missions department, issued in March. He allegedly noted that Space Launch System (SLS) would boast several ”unique capabilities” which SpaceX Falcon Heavy has not yet attained.
SpaceX Falcon Heavy is “too small” but Boeing and NASA failed to explain the near future purpose of SLS (Space Launch System) rockets
Besides he said all that, Gerstenmaier failed to fully clarify the reason behind NASA’s demand for the SLS as, at this moment, it has not constructed something which could exploit those SLS “unique capabilities”.
Also surprisingly, Boeing spoke on the SLS subject as if it were already up and running. In reality, the systems will only be able to commence the first flying tests in about 2 years from now. Besides, the first SLS rockets won’t be eligible for the title of the “most powerful rockets”, as that is planned to happen later, the same report says.
Until now, the most powerful rocket that has ever been produced is Saturn V that NASA has employed in its Apollo expeditions to bring humans to the Moon. They were strong enough to transport 118 metric tons to Earth’s lower orbit. In the end, the first SLS (Space Launch Systems, developed by Boeing for NASA) will have the capacity to hoist 70 tons to lower orbit and that is just a little more than the 64 tons a SpaceX Falcon Heavy can carry, at this moment.
The competitor for the SLS is the BFR — which is under construction in LA as we speak, which begins testing next year and will be flying to orbit in 2020 or so, while the $10-billion-and-counting, non-reusable SLS is still complete vaporware.
The SLS, assuming it ever flies, will take 130 tons to LEO, and none of it will be reusable. It will launch once a year, max, with a tag of $1 billion a pop.
The BFR will take 150 tons to LEO, and both stages are reusable — in fact, the upper stage is a spaceship which can go anywhere in the Solar System with 50 people aboard and return and be reused.
Oh, and just for comparison’s sake: the SLS is still not operational after a decade at $1 billion a year. The Falcon Heavy took -half- that time, and only $500 million — one half of one billion — to develop and is actually flying.
Boeing and ULA — aka “Useless Legacy Anachronism” are stuck with an enormous boondoggle of 1980’s tech. But hey, it’s providing pseudo-jobs in an Alabama congresscritter’s constituency.