NASA spends $1 billion for a launch tower that leans may only be used once

Enlarge/ The space agency's mobile launch tower is leaning slightly to the north.
NASA

On Tuesday and Wednesday Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to tour facilities there and participate in the second meeting of the National Space Council. It is not clear how much of the launch facilities he will see during his visit to Florida, where NASA is spending billions of dollars to build ground systems for the launch of the Space Launch System rocket.

There is one component of the revamped facilities that NASA may be reluctant to show Pence, who in effect oversees all national spaceflight activities as the head of the space council. This is the "mobile launcher" structure, which supports the testing and servicing of the massive SLS rocket, as well moving it to the launch pad and providing a platform from which it will launch.

According to a new report in NASASpaceflight.com, the expensive tower is "leaning" and "bending." For now, NASA says, the lean is not sufficient enough to require corrective action, but it is developing contingency plans in case the lean angle becomes steeper.

These defects raise concerns about the longevity of the launch tower and increase the likelihood that NASA will seek additional funding to build a second one. In fact, it is entirely possible that the launch tower may serve only for the maiden flight of the SLS rocket in 2020 and then be cast aside. This would represent a significant waste of resources by the space agency.

A very costly tower

Construction on the structure began nine years ago, when NASA needed a mobile launcher for a different rocket, the Ares I vehicle. According to NASA's inspector general, Paul Martin, the agency spent $234 million to originally build the launch tower. However, after the government's Ares I and V rockets were canceled due to delays and cost overruns in 2010, NASA was left without much of a use for the large structure, which consists of a two-story base, a 355-foot-tall tower, and facility ground support systems.

In 2011, after Congress directed NASA to build a new large rocket, the SLS, the agency began studying its options to launch the booster. These trade studies found that modifying the existing mobile launcher would cost $54 million, modifying the Space Shuttle Mobile Launcher Platforms would cost $93 million, and constructing a new mobile launch platform would cost $122 million. Ultimately, the agency opted for the lowest-cost option—modifying the Ares mobile launcher—but unfortunately those preliminary cost estimates turned out to be wildly optimistic.

A long-exposure view of the mobile launcher at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA
A rendering of the SLS rocket attached to the mobile launcher.
NASA
A view from below the mobile launcher shows a crane positioning the bracket for the Orion Service Module Umbilical.
NASA
A sense of scale: In view, in the background at far left, is the Vehicle Assembly Building and the mobile launcher.
NASA
During a training exercise, a NASA UH-1 "Huey" helicopter flies past the Mobile Launcher.
NASA
OK, maybe the journey to the Moon begins here.
NASA
A view of the mobile launcher taken from a deck on the north side of the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building on May 30, 2017.
NASA
The mobile launcher is to the back, left of the iconic Vertical Assembly Building.
NASA
Another one for scale: The Vehicle Assembly Building and mobile launcher are engulfed in fog.
NASA
The Orion Service Module Umbilical is lifted for installation on the mobile launcher tower.
NASA

Instead of costing just $54 million, the US Government Accountability Office found that NASA spent $281.8 million revamping the mobile launcher from fiscal years 2012 to 2015, but still the work was not done. The recently released White House budget for fiscal year 2019 reveals that NASA anticipates spending an additional $396.2 million on the mobile launcher from 2015 through the maiden launch of the SLS, probably in 2020.

Therefore, from the tower's inception in 2009, NASA will have spent $912 million on the mobile launcher it may use for just a single launch of the SLS rocket. Moreover, the agency will have required eight years to modify a launch tower it built in two years.

Further modifications

Aside from the leaning issue, there's another problem with the mobile launcher and future flights of the SLS rocket. NASA intends to upgrade SLS's upper stage between the first flight and second flight, to give the rocket more oomph in sending larger payloads deeper into the Solar System. This larger and longer upper stage, known as the "Exploration Upper Stage," will necessitate significant changes to the mobile launcher.

The agency estimates it will take 33 months to accomplish this work, and this will contribute to the nearly three-year delay expected between the first and second flights of SLS. Some safety officials have warned that such a gap creates readiness concerns because of lost experience and a lack of continuity. At a cost of approximately $300 million, NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel has recommended building a second mobile launcher.

NASA has not formally embraced this option, but officials within the agency, especially at Kennedy Space Center, are lobbying for the new infrastructure. It's not clear how Pence feels—or if he has even been made aware of the leaning issue with the existing mobile launcher. However, the White House's budget for fiscal year 2019 includes no funding for building a second mobile launcher at this time.

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