Long-time advocate of SLS rocket says it’s time to find an “off-ramp”
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/long-time-advocate-of-sls-rocket-says-its-time-to-find-an-off-ramp/
Long-time advocate of SLS rocket says it’s time to find an “off-ramp”
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/long-time-advocate-of-sls-rocket-says-its-time-to-find-an-off-ramp/
15 Comments
Pretty significant to have Pace change his position this much. Probably stating it to be in time for the hearing that’s coming up.
[Link to full text Pace discussed in article, given as statement for the record for the hearing.](https://republicans-science.house.gov/_cache/files/7/5/753b449d-7b41-455b-a134-222c9337caf7/F18B0162A530D3153DA52B2D398F47A395E90858670BB89A775902087AD10733.dr.-pace—testimony.pdf)
[Full hearing video.](https://www.youtube.com/live/HpJmCt17KsA?si=7m3tFGhWSGjzzS4T)
Also of significant note:
>In terms of NASA’s budget, to justify its funding or seek more resources, Pace says the agency needs to innovate more and that traditional programs of record should be used “only as a last resort.” He also says the agency could consider options, such as **ending the life of the International Space Station before 2030, due to its age and an increasing number of anomalies.**
The SLS was created by Congress. It’s mandated under US law. It takes an act of Congress to cancel the SLS.
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He also said in the hearing that AR2, 3, and maybe 4 should remain unchanged while other options are worked simultaneously to avoid further delays. Which I think is what most people agree the path forward should be.
So the plan would be to continue building the Gateway and using Orion, just with a different launcher?
A billion dollar ramp? That’s structurally compromised and leaning over?
Sls a.k.a Ares V will go down as probably most mishandled rocket development program in history. It was supposed to be a cheap and quick rocket based on STS hardware and ended up either.
Ludicrous launch price, extremely low lauch rate, and ballooning project cost.
Starship exists, and the lower stage has proven itself to be reliable and fast to build. If combined with a normal second stage, then it could do anything that sls can
So how long until it’s reveled Bezos or Musk bought him a beach house
Bad paraphrasing in the title. He said we need to find an off-ramp to reliance on SLS. I interpret that to be “only on SLS “
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[AR](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/mex3j1d “Last usage”)|Area Ratio (between rocket engine nozzle and bell)|
| |Aerojet Rocketdyne|
| |Augmented Reality real-time processing|
| |Anti-Reflective optical coating|
|[BO](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/mex23av “Last usage”)|Blue Origin (*Bezos Rocketry*)|
|[CLD](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/mexjbhz “Last usage”)|Commercial Low-orbit Destination(s)|
|[DoD](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/mey8jlk “Last usage”)|US Department of Defense|
|ETOV|Earth To Orbit Vehicle (common parlance: “rocket”)|
|[EUS](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/mextws0 “Last usage”)|Exploration Upper Stage|
|[HALO](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/meybk8j “Last usage”)|Habitation and Logistics Outpost|
|[HLS](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/mexxn6l “Last usage”)|[Human Landing System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System) (Artemis)|
|[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/mey6ws0 “Last usage”)|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
| |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
|[LV](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/meybk8j “Last usage”)|Launch Vehicle (common parlance: “rocket”), see ETOV|
|[NG](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/meybk8j “Last usage”)|New Glenn, two/three-stage orbital vehicle by Blue Origin|
| |Natural Gas (as opposed to pure methane)|
| |Northrop Grumman, aerospace manufacturer|
|[NRE](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/mex328e “Last usage”)|Non-Recurring Expense|
|[PPE](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/meybk8j “Last usage”)|Power and Propulsion Element|
|[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/meybk8j “Last usage”)|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
|[STS](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/mex2ba8 “Last usage”)|Space Transportation System (*Shuttle*)|
|[SV](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/meybk8j “Last usage”)|Space Vehicle|
|[ULA](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/meybk8j “Last usage”)|United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture)|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[Starlink](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/meybk8j “Last usage”)|SpaceX’s world-wide satellite broadband constellation|
|[cryogenic](/r/Space/comments/1iys9vd/stub/mexn24a “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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Hey look! Another anti-SLS article written by Eric Berger, who has a close connection to Elon Musk and relies on his exclusive access to sell his books.
It’s odd that despite the extensive access Eric has to SpaceX, he has never reported on the serious sexual misconduct and safety issues that have been raised at the company! I wonder why!
One thing I will say in favor of the SLS: it gives me hope that things like cold fusion are possible. If we can spend over a decade and billions of dollars to perpetually be a few years off from solving a problem we already solved in the 70’s, maybe the decades of work and billions sunk to always still be a decade away from solving cold fusion don’t actually mean the problem is insurmountable.
I’ve said this was pork barrel spending, jobs program for 10 years and always downvoted. Well well well.
Back when it became obvious that SLS was a lemon (and an expensive one at that) and that Starship development pathway was going to leave it in the dust in terms of cadence, capability and cost (somewhere around 2018), I publicly wondered how the SLS cheerleaders would react when the politicians finally got around to accepting the inevitable and cancelled it. Of course, I got banned for suggesting the SLS future was other than sweetness and roses. SLS was the only game in town and it was secure in congressional funding, it would go on to glory and later Blocks. However that itself kind of answered the question – with denial and an inability to accept reality.
Now we are the verge of SLS getting chopped, probably entirely and immediately, and we still get the same arguments – how it’s the only game in town, how its safe till at least the end of this administration, etc. (which should tell you its not). Some with the inside track are trying to find an ‘off-ramp’ to their cheerleading for a dead duck. Some have jumped ship before they can be sacked. And I’m sure when the axe has fallen there will still be those claiming the decision can be reversed and SLS reborn – as it was from the ashes of Ares/Constellation.
Lesson has to be that people will cling to bad ideas well past their sellby date, and that they can’t imagine stepping back and making strategic decisions – let alone structuring programs to a timeline that’s fast enough and thus cheap enough to be credible. The trick to good management is not to take the political, incremental, kludged path – but to raise the viewpoint, see what’s over the horizon, and make real decisions that aren’t afraid to ‘jump’, or to butcher the sacred cows. And that goes not just for SLS, or indeed for space, but for every large scale technological program.
This was the Afghan occupation of space programs. It was clearly going to end in failure unless an unrealistic amount more was invested. But people just let it keep kicking on down the road to not have to be the one to pull the plug.
Like we could have just sent the constellation workers a lifetime pension instead and saved a mountain of money.