<story><title>NASA May Unveil New Manned Moon Missions Soon</title><url>http://www.space.com/18380-nasa-moon-missions-obama-election.html</url><text></text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>schiffern</author><text>With SpaceX and their heavy-lift plans in the back of my mind, watching the video made me cringe. When they constantly name-drop the manufacturer of various components it becomes all too obvious who the real audience is. And the message? &apos;Don&apos;t call your Senators, you&apos;re still on the gravy train.&apos;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#62;Work is underway on the flight-qualified booster, getting ready for its big test next year &lt;i&gt;at ATK in Utah&lt;/i&gt;. [Formerly Morton Thiokol, the company that Orrin Hatch axed the single-segment SRB design to protect. This design decision, and the famed management decision at MT to ignore engineer Roger Boisjoly&apos;s warnings on launch day, doomed the crew of STS-51-L.]&lt;p&gt;&amp;#62;The venerable RS-25 engine, &lt;i&gt;built by Pratt-Whitney Rocketdyne&lt;/i&gt;… will power the SLS core stage.&lt;p&gt;&amp;#62;In order to fuel these engines, NASA called on the expertise &lt;i&gt;at the Boeing Company&lt;/i&gt; to build the SLS core stage…&lt;p&gt;…and on and on.&lt;p&gt;In this arena cost inefficiency is a feature, not a bug.</text></comment>
<story><title>NASA May Unveil New Manned Moon Missions Soon</title><url>http://www.space.com/18380-nasa-moon-missions-obama-election.html</url><text></text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>sehugg</author><text>Kennedy: Let&apos;s go to the Moon. We go to the Moon.&lt;p&gt;Nixon: Apollo canceled. Shuttle born.&lt;p&gt;Reagan: Space Station Freedom. The Ride Report proposes a lunar base by 2010.&lt;p&gt;Bush Sr: Space Exploration Initiative, or $500 billion for a lunar base by 2010 or 2020. Rejected.&lt;p&gt;Clinton: Space Station Freedom morphs into ISS.&lt;p&gt;Bush Jr: Constellation program and humans on the Moon by 2020.&lt;p&gt;Obama: Constellation canceled, SLS born. Moon by 2020. Or maybe an asteroid by 2025. Or maybe Mars (with friends). Or maybe somewhere else entirely...&lt;p&gt;It seems much easier to get agreement on who does the studies and who builds the hardware than where to go and when.</text></comment>