Brooke Simpson-NASA's Rocket to Deep Space May Not Be Ready Until 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/science/nasa-space-launch-system-delay.html

NASA’s Rocket to Deep Space May Not Be Ready Until 2020

            NASA’s new rocket’s first flight has been postponed until December 2019, but it could be 2020 before it finally takes off.  The rocket is called the Space Launch System, and is succeeding the rocket that took astronauts to the moon over 40 years ago.  NASA is hoping to use the SLS to take astronauts to the moon, and maybe even Mars, but the first trip will not take astronauts.  Manned trips to the moon are a part of the Trump administration, but putting astronauts on the first flight would add $900 million to the program’s budget and pushed the date back much further.  Right now, the launch date is in June 2020, after our class graduates high school, but NASA is trying to move it up six months as long as the teams stay focused.  William H. Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operation, says that NASA is working really hard to avoid issues and get the SLS launched as soon as possible.  He has assured Congress that the delay will add less than 15% to the cost, but that sounds like a lot to me.  Some of the delays have been a tornado hitting a factory in Louisiana where parts are being built.  The first trip with astronauts is set for 2023.  Another hope of the program is to send a probe to Europa to look for other forms of life.  Gerstenmaier said that NASA would soon provide a framework of their plans after 2023, but the agency is facing tight budget reserves.  Another problem is that NASA doesn’t have a permanent leader, and have been without since President Trump’s Inauguration, making this the longest NASA has been without a permanent administrator.  Jim Bridenstine has been nominated to run NASA, and won approval of a key panel, but still needs to pass through the entire Senate.  Some experts are saying that NASA should abandon the SLS and let other companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin take over, but the two companies are said to be years behind schedule. 

            The article was written by Kenneth Chang on November 9, 2017 for the New York Times.  Because the article was only written three days ago, I don’t think that any new breakthroughs pushing the launch six months ahead have happened since the article was published.  The article was written to inform people, especially people interested in space exploration, about the future of NASA and it’s Space Launch System.  The article is trying to tell people that NASA is very behind and over budget, and that other options might be better.  The article gives multiple people’s opinions about NASA and the other space companies, but doesn’t fully side with one.  I think the article is important because I only hear about the bad stuff on the news, and I don’t see NASA on the news that much, and I think it is good to hear that the agency is still working and learning more about space.  NASA’s work on the program to send people back to the moon can be compared to the time of waiting before they sent people to the moon for the first time.