back to article NASA firms up Space Launch System nanosat manifest

NASA has announced three more CubeSats which will travel on the first mission of the Space Launch System (SLS), slated for lift-off in 2018. A total of 13 CubeSat berths are available aboard Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), which is primarily intended to dispatch an Orion capsule "to a stable orbit beyond the moon to …

  1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Is there still room for a S.I.D. prototype?

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Only if the Westbrook Utronic FTL detectors reach the launch site in time.

  2. ChrisInAStrangeLand
    FAIL

    20kg payload on a 90,000kg rocket to nowhere.

    It's been twelve years since project Constellation was launched by President George Bush Jr and NASA still has not been appropriated funding for any payloads other than a lunar flyby with a dummy capsule. And it's looking like they won't be before the test flights conclude and the rocket is cancelled.

    What a collossal and criminal waste of $30B.

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: 20kg payload on a 90,000kg rocket to nowhere.

      Actually, the US Congress just bumped the budget for SLS up by another $20M, so your total might be a little on the low side.

      As someone who doesn't pay taxes in the US though, I'm all for the idea of bloody great rockets :)

      1. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

        Re: @phuzz - 20kg payload on a 90,000kg rocket to nowhere.

        As someone who DOES pay taxes in the US, I'm all for the idea of bloody great rockets. Especially those pointed outwards and not somewhere else on the planet.

        1. Lars Silver badge
          Happy

          Re: @phuzz - 20kg payload on a 90,000kg rocket to nowhere.

          @ Ugotta B. Kiddingme

          How unTrumpish.

          1. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

            actually, Lars, I'm hoping we can use one of said rockets to send the current leading presidential candidates on a lovely vacation, exploring the wonders of... er... anywhere other than THIS planet. I hear the Orion capsule is quite roomy. Perhaps we could send a few other current or potential heads of state along as well.

    2. Beachrider

      Constellation was cancelled...

      After the 2009 test of the Ares rocket development, Constellation was stopped, altogether. Ares is nowhere to be found. Orion was resurrected with SLS, but the funding was shifted to Commercial lift. Commercial cargo has been working since 2012. Ares wouldn't have been ready until 2017, at best. Commercial manned lift is on track for manned testing in 2017 and ISS deliveries in 2018.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 20kg payload on a 90,000kg rocket to nowhere.

      It's not for nothing that SLS is often called the Senate Launch System - it has kept a lot of pork going to vulnerable congressional districts for the last few years.

      A much better Senate Launch System might be one that puts both houses into orbit.

  3. energystar
    Holmes

    Probably focusing on moon targets.

  4. Dr Patrick J R Harkin

    Why has the last picture...

    ...got WALL-E's head in it?

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