Congress and Trump may compromise on the SLS rocket by axing its costly upper stage
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/09/congress-and-trump-may-compromise-on-the-sls-rocket-by-axing-its-costly-upper-stage/
Congress and Trump may compromise on the SLS rocket by axing its costly upper stage
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/09/congress-and-trump-may-compromise-on-the-sls-rocket-by-axing-its-costly-upper-stage/
13 Comments
Ah yes, space technology as designed by politicians. What could possibly go wrong?
isnt that the most important stage?
so they want to have a rocket that is just a projectile with no steering in space?
amazing solution
maybe this is just like injecting light into your body to cure covid?
We’re going to Mars, except we’re only going halfway there? What, turn around and come back?
Wouldn’t it be better to only build the left side of the top two stages? /s
Did anyone read the article? They don’t want to just remove the upper stage, they want to replace it with a cheaper commercial alternative like a Centaur V or Blue Origin upper stage that could be retrofitted to work with the SLS shroud
Berger keeps begging for it but he won’t get it.
They keep saying we can’t lose the “space race” to china. I bet china isn’t “axing” the upper stage.
If EUS is canceled, Gateway is automatically canceled too as it is being specifically designed to be use EUS’s capability. And I don’t see Congress canceling Gateway.
They could save even more money by axing the entire thing
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[EUS](/r/Space/comments/1nbs70w/stub/nd47b1e “Last usage”)|Exploration Upper Stage|
|[EVA](/r/Space/comments/1nbs70w/stub/nd3zv7x “Last usage”)|Extra-Vehicular Activity|
|[ICPS](/r/Space/comments/1nbs70w/stub/nd48mpq “Last usage”)|Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage|
|[N1](/r/Space/comments/1nbs70w/stub/nd45uyz “Last usage”)|Raketa Nositel-1, Soviet super-heavy-lift (“Russian Saturn V”)|
|[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1nbs70w/stub/nd48mpq “Last usage”)|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
|[ULA](/r/Space/comments/1nbs70w/stub/nd40izk “Last usage”)|United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture)|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[cryogenic](/r/Space/comments/1nbs70w/stub/nd479to “Last usage”)|Very low temperature fluid; materials that would be gaseous at room temperature/pressure|
| |(In re: rocket fuel) Often synonymous with hydrolox|
|hydrolox|Portmanteau: liquid hydrogen fuel, liquid oxygen oxidizer|
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What a joke of an administration. Such a waste of good science and potential, and valuable data being thrown away because it tells a story they don’t want people to hear.
So… we are only sending half rockets to space now? Seem like a half ass effort here which will allow China to claim the moon and its trillions of dollars in resources. What a great move by our Dipshit leader/s.
The irony here is that they’re axing one of the cheapest parts of the rocket. Don’t get me wrong, the upper stage is a ridiculous boondoggle but compared to Orion or the SLS main stage, it is just a drop in the bucket.