Why was the constellation project cancelled? (or more specifically why was it cancelled and replaced by the SLS)? By all standards of measure, the Ares family of launch vehicles was superior to anything planned for SLS. Why would they scrap it in favor of a vastly inferior vehicle?

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Anonymous Sat May 2 00:32:26 2015 No.7231379 [Reply] [Original]

Why was the constellation project cancelled? (or more specifically why was it cancelled and replaced by the SLS)?

By all standards of measure, the Ares family of launch vehicles was superior to anything planned for SLS. Why would they scrap it in favor of a vastly inferior vehicle?

>>	Anonymous Sat May 2 00:37:45 2015 No.7231385 >>7231379 IDK but on a guess I'd say budget. Really not qualified to have an opinion though, just posting dribble I pull out of my ass.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 2 00:41:39 2015 No.7231395 >>7231385 >Really not qualified to have an opinion though, just posting dribble I pull out of my ass. Sums up /sci/ in general

Anonymous Sat May 2 00:46:58 2015 No.7231402

For starters, Ares I didn't work. They test-flew it, and it had thrust oscillation problems.

Ares I was the heart of the program. Orion/Ares I was going to be their crew rotation vehicle for ISS.

Ares V wasn't going to work either. They couldn't make up their minds about what engines to use on it. They were planning on RS-68 (the Delta IV booster engine), but then figured out that it couldn't survive next to the SRBs. The shuttle engines probably couldn't survive being used in a team of five, due to their vibrations affecting each other -- they barely held together in a team of three.

So they had no Ares I booster, and no Ares V main engine. Meanwhile, Orion was overweight, over budget, and behind schedule. They weren't sure that even if they fixed Ares I, that Orion would fit on it.

SLS is the Constellation program, and don't let anyone tell you different. They could not build Ares I, and could not build Ares V or Orion to spec. So they fudged the spec and declared it a new project that no money had been spent on, yet. Obama also got to declare Bush's rocket a failure, and claim SLS as his administration's rocket.

By the next administration, Falcon Heavy will be flying, and they'll just cancel SLS.

Anonymous Sat May 2 00:50:59 2015 No.7231406

>>7231379
>>Why was the constellation project cancelled?
we didn't have enough money for it.

Of course we don't have enough money for the SLS either, but congress wanted it. They had to keep all that shuttle money heading to their districts:
http://www.competitivespace.org/issues/the-senate-launch-system/

Anonymous Sat May 2 00:53:02 2015 No.7231409

> In October 2010, the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 was signed into law, which canceled Constellation.[16] But previous legislation kept Constellation contracts in force until a new funding bill was passed for 2011.[17][18] Due to previous legislative obligations, $500 million was to be paid to contractors after the program's cancellation until March 2011.[19]
What the fuck
That's less money than was used to start SpaceX...

>>	Anonymous Sat May 2 00:54:22 2015 No.7231413 >>7231409 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY

>>	Anonymous Sat May 2 16:26:44 2015 No.7232561 SLS is vaporware

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