NASA plans to replace an engine controller aboard its massive SLS rocket after finding a communications glitch with the system\u2019s avionics during pre-flight testing, the latest setback in a program for which Boeing Co. is the main contractor and that has been plagued by years of delays and billions of dollars in costs beyond its initial budget.<\/p>\n
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration also said Friday it will explore\u00a0launch dates<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for a test flight in March and April.<\/p>\n The rocket, which Congress authorized and began funding in 2010, was supposed to fly in late 2016.<\/p>\n In October, NASA solicited\u00a0ideas<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0from the aerospace industry about ways to lower the costs associated with the Space Launch System.<\/p>\n Replacing the unit on one of the SLS\u2019s four RS-25 engines is \u201cthe best course of action,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n The update comes after engineers preparing the rocket for flight detected a communications problem last month between the rocket\u2019s avionics system and the No. 4 engine, and began troubleshooting the issue.<\/p>\n NASA plans to use the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule to return astronauts to the moon later this decade.<\/p>\n It had set a tentative launch date of Feb. 12 for the SLS-Orion system\u2019s initial uncrewed Artemis 1 test flight around the moon.<\/p>\n Boeing is the rocket\u2019s prime contractor and the RS-25 engines, which date to the Space Shuttle program, are supplied by Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc.<\/p>\n The main contractor for the Orion crew capsule, which is designed to take astronauts to deep space, is Lockheed Martin Corp.<\/p>\n For its initial four Artemis flights, NASA will likely spend $4.1 billion per launch for SLS and the Orion capsule, totaling $16.4 billion, according to a Nov. 15 NASA Inspector General\u00a0report<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The agency has spent more than $11 billion to date on the rocket. That document also predicted the first Artemis flight won\u2019t be ready to launch before the summer of 2022.<\/p>\n Nasa found a communications glitch in the engine controller on the Boeing SLS rocket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":427992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31750],"tags":[8789,22983,27881,54505],"class_list":["post-427990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-boeing","tag-national-aeronautics-and-space-administration-nasa","tag-orion","tag-space-launch-system-sls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427994,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427990\/revisions\/427994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNow read: Fourth wave in Gauteng may have peaked<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"