NASA considering flying uncrewed mission around moon on commercial rocket - Houston Chronicle

As construction of NASA's heavy-lift rocket continues to fall behind schedule, Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday the agency is considering sending the Orion spacecraft around the moon on the back of a commercial vehicle.

The first launch of Orion — the spacecraft being built to take humans back to the moon for the first time since 1972 — on the Space Launch System rocket most recently was scheduled to launch by June 2020. But the agency this month acknowledged that schedule won't be met, signaling yet another delay for the problematic rocket.

"I think we, as an agency, need to stick to our commitments," Bridenstine testified at a Wednesday hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. "If we tell you and others that we're going to launch in June 2020 around the moon, I think we should, and I think we can get it done."

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Wednesday was the first time this idea has been publicly floated. Bridenstine admitted he is unsure what commercial rocket would be used for this endeavor — or how much it would cost.

"I tasked the agency with figuring out how to make that an objective," he said. Cost "is another discussion, but we might need to request help from the Congress."

But he told Congress members that he intends to make a decision in the next couple of weeks.

Bridenstine's announcement Wednesday was the second setback in three days for the SLS rocket, a brainchild of President Barack Obama's administration that initially was supposed to launch in 2017.

In the budget proposal for fiscal year 2020 released Monday by the White House, President Donald Trump suggested postponing an upgrade to increase the rocket's performance. Under the Trump proposal, NASA would continue with the initial version instead, while the agency would remove from the rocket's manifest a mission to study Jupiter's moon, Europa.

That mission, called Europa Clipper, would instead launch on a commercial rocket. Budget documents state that this will save the U.S. $700 million.

The first Orion spacecraft mission, Exploration Mission-1, is meant to go up without a crew. The second, Exploration Mission-2, will launch humans around the moon and is supposed to fly no later than 2023.

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If NASA flies the first Orion mission aboard a commercial rocket, Bridenstine said two rockets would actually be used.

One would launch Orion capsule into low Earth orbit, he said, while another would launch a fully-fueled upper stage — which provides the propulsion need to throw Orion around the moon — into space. Then, the two would dock together and continue on the mission around the moon, he added.

The Orion capsule currently does not have the right hardware for docking, he said, so that would need to be added.

"Here's the glory of the United States of America," Bridenstine said. "We have amazing capability that exists right now that we can use off the shelf in order to accomplish this objective."

Boeing was awarded a contract in 2012 to build two SLS cores for NASA, one for the first, uncrewed Orion flight and one for the second that would carry Americans around the moon.

At that time, the uncrewed flight was expected to launch in 2017. But that timeline didn't work out as the project has been plagued with construction delays and cost increases.

So far, the rocket has cost NASA about $12 billion.

Still, Bridenstine vehemently defended the rocket, both on Monday and Wednesday.

"I want to start with a point of emphasis: SLS is the largest rocket ever built in American history and it's a critical piece of what needs to be built," Bridenstine said. "But SLS is struggling to meet schedule ... and now we are understanding better how difficult the project is and that its going to take additional time."

Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.

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