NASA's $1 Billion Mobile Launcher Leans a Little
NASA's latest tower for launching rockets has a little bit of a lean, which means it may be able to launch just a single rocket. The cost of this tower boondoggle? Almost $1 billion.
The tower in question is the Mobile Launcher designed for NASA’s upcoming Space Launch System, which would become the world’s most powerful rocket once completed in a few years. The tower is supposed to keep the rocket stable and upright on the platform during a launch. The system was built for NASA’s now-defunct Ares I rocket and later repurposed for the SLS.
The Mobile Launcher is a behemoth piece of equipment, standing nearly 400 feet tall and weighing more than 10 million pounds. It holds miles of cables, tubes, and pipes to ensure the SLS can remain operational on the launch pad. Building such a structure is a challenging task, which is why it cost approximately $912 million.
The sheer size and complexity may also be the cause of the difficulties the Mobile Launcher is currently facing. According to a report from NASASpaceflight.com, the launch tower is leaning slightly toward the North, which is in the direction of the rocket on the launchpad. The structure also seems to be twisting slightly.
While NASA seems to believe this lean is not enough to require additional construction, it will likely mean that the Mobile Launcher won’t be used for more than one or two launches. If the agency wants to launch more than a few SLS rockets over the next few decades, it will likely have to build a brand new launcher.
This isn’t entirely a bad thing, though. NASA had previously been considering building a second launcher anyway to accommodate the SLS Exploration Upper Stage, the larger version of the rocket’s second stage designed to send payloads deeper into the solar system. Because the Exploration Upper Stage is much larger than the standard upper stage, it would require either significant updates to the existing Mobile Launcher or a brand new one.
The Exploration Upper Stage is scheduled to be used on the second flight of the SLS, which means that even if the leaning Mobile Launcher is structurally sound enough to launch multiple rockets, it may be retired after the first one anyway. After all, there was a strong argument in favor of building a new Mobile Launcher even before the old one started bending.
Source: NASASpaceflight.com
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