SLS: Some more about costs
Some weeks ago I wrote a blog about SLS costs. Now, it was more meant to provide a rough idea as to what SLS would cost per launch, not a full on cost analysis; the methods I used for this were obviously flawed in several ways. In this one I'll look a NASA budget availability study from 2011 (I won't do my own analysis), as well as some more things about budget that I often see confusion about. What exactly is "SLS"? This is a dumb sounding question that is actually a lot more complicated than you might think. When people talk about "SLS" they often mean the complete system, not just the rocket which is what I refer to as "SLS". The current Exploration Systems Development programs contains three different main programs: SLS, MPCV, and 21st Century Ground Systems. They all have their own costs and their own purposes, with the current budget looking like roughly $1.4 billion for SLS, $1 billion for the MPCV and about $400 million for 21st CGS, t