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NASA aims for Mars with giant rocket
Source: Agencies |
September 15, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
NASA officials yesterday unveiled plans for a mammoth deep-space rocket to carry astronauts to the moon, Mars and other destinations beyond the International Space Station.
The rocket project would cost US$10 billion through 2017, when the first test flight of the Space Launch System is scheduled to take place from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Another US$6 billion is allotted to building the Orion deep-space crew capsule. NASA already has spent US$5 billion on Orion.
In addition, US$2 billion would be spent to refurbish NASA's Florida spaceport.
The new rocket is based on the space shuttle's liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engines and fuel tanks, coupled initially with upgraded solid-fuel shuttle booster rockets.
NASA plans a competition that could replace the Alliant Techsystems in booster rockets.
The announcement follows a year-long tussle with Congress over the project's cost, scope and technical parameters. The Barack Obama administration withheld its plans while it obtained an independent cost estimate for the Space Launch System.
"We've been frustrated by the delays," said Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a Texas Republican serving on a NASA oversight committee.
The new booster is intended to lift 63,000 kg of cargo, with nearly twice that lift capacity in future versions for missions into deep space.
Obama has called for a human expedition to an asteroid by 2025 and a journey to Mars in the 2030s.
The rocket project would cost US$10 billion through 2017, when the first test flight of the Space Launch System is scheduled to take place from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Another US$6 billion is allotted to building the Orion deep-space crew capsule. NASA already has spent US$5 billion on Orion.
In addition, US$2 billion would be spent to refurbish NASA's Florida spaceport.
The new rocket is based on the space shuttle's liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engines and fuel tanks, coupled initially with upgraded solid-fuel shuttle booster rockets.
NASA plans a competition that could replace the Alliant Techsystems in booster rockets.
The announcement follows a year-long tussle with Congress over the project's cost, scope and technical parameters. The Barack Obama administration withheld its plans while it obtained an independent cost estimate for the Space Launch System.
"We've been frustrated by the delays," said Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a Texas Republican serving on a NASA oversight committee.
The new booster is intended to lift 63,000 kg of cargo, with nearly twice that lift capacity in future versions for missions into deep space.
Obama has called for a human expedition to an asteroid by 2025 and a journey to Mars in the 2030s.
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