Kamal Ghorui
Nasa’s Boeing rocket just propelled astronauts farther into space than ever before, but the Trump administration is looking to competitors for a replacement. About a week before the $24 billion Space Launch System (SLS) pushed the four crew members of the Artemis II mission around the moon, Nasa asked Boeing rivals what options they could offer for its ambitious plan of future lunar trips. It echoed almost immediately in White House’s budget request, put a big question mark on the future of Boeing’s beleaguered rocket after a decade of development. The fate of the programme – worth tens of billions of dollars over the next few years – has become a key test for Jared Isaacman, the billionaire fintech entrepreneur who Trump named to run Nasa last year, in his efforts to make the space agency faster and more efficient. He’s counting on companies like SpaceX to provide cheaper alternatives to the costly systems by legacy players like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. “Because that programme draws on such history, has contractors, hundreds of subcontractors, tens of thousands of people, it’s expensive,” Isaacman said in Feb. “It’s not the vehicle that you are going to take to and from the moon a couple of times a year as you build out a moon base the way the president wants.” That network of support – Artemis counts suppliers in all 50 states – has helped SLS survive efforts to kill it over years of delays. Last week, the White House said it will try again to find commercial replacements.With a 2028 deadline looming to land astronauts on the moon before Trump leaves office and China planning its own mission by the end of the decade, Isaacman is under pressure to deliver. Although legacy providers like Boeing have struggled to meet deadlines in the past, their technologies are proven. New rivals like SpaceX and Blue Origin are yet to show their rockets can get to the moon.(This is a Bloomberg story)
