Less than two weeks ago, the Trump administration asked NASA to investigate whether it should add crew to a the first flight of the Space Launch System.
Now, Greg Autry, former NASA liaison, member of the Trump transition team, and critic of SLS , is reinforcing that call in more certain terms.
“Nobody is ever restoring the Apollo budgets so let’s stop talking about how we did things under that model. Given that we have a system built around very proven components (engines, boosters, capsule) spending $1 billion-plus on a single test undermines the bolder exploration goals most of us in the space community support,” Autry
Autry reportedly resigned his position in the administration last Thursday.
Currently, Exploration Mission-1, known as EM-1, is an unmanned missions scheduled to launch in 2018 and orbit the moon before returning to Earth. As the SLS’s first flight, EM-1 was initially planned as a test to shake down the new, unproven system. Given that launches are planned years in advance—especially when new equipment is involved—the suggested addition of crew amounts to a last-minute addition. EM-2, which is currently planned as the first manned mission, isn’t slated to fly for several years after EM-1, most likely between 2021–2023.
It’s unclear whether Autry’s statements reflect the current mood within NASA given that he is no longer a part of administration. But they fall in line with what NASA’s acting administrator Richard Lightfoot told employees in a February 15 email: “I know the challenges associated with such a proposition, like reviewing the technical feasibility, additional resources needed, and clearly the extra work would require a different launch date. That said, I also want to hear about the opportunities it could present to accelerate the effort of the first crewed flight and what it would take to accomplish that first step of pushing humans farther into space.”