The latest in a series of articles about NASA's Mars space program by Houston Chronicle science reporter Eric Berger questions whether the long-term cost of building and operating the agency's new heavy lift rocket is sustainable. Much of the rocket is being manufactured at the Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans.
Berger points out that the National Research Council, in a report released last week, found that the number of flights expected for the new Space Launch System rockets are below the rates that sustained the Saturn V and space shuttle programs, and that NASA would continue to find problems funding the system.
NASA officials said they plan to continue to aim at a human mission to Mars, despite the report.
"NASA's budget appears to allow for one flight of the SLS per year, at most. And that assumes NASA can find some money -- which it doesn't have -- to build a payload or two for the rocket to launch," Berger wrote in his article.