NASA’s first moon touchdown since Apollo 17 was initially scheduled for late 2024. Nevertheless, growth delays with each Boeing and SpaceX have pushed Artemis III again to 2027. Boeing is now making ready to layoff half its Artemis Program workforce as indicators level towards the Trump administration not renewing the aerospace large’s contract. Boeing’s ousting can be considerably because of the direct meddling of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who vocally despises the Twenty first-century Moon program.
Boeing produces the core stage of the House Launch System, the rocket that will ship NASA’s Artemis astronauts to lunar orbit if totally developed. Boeing held an emergency all-hands assembly with its SLS workforce of 800 staff final Friday, Ars Technica stories. David Dutcher, firm vp and SLS program supervisor, mentioned that Boeing might lose its contract in March and 400 individuals can be laid off because of this. A Boeing spokesperson informed the Register:
“To align with revisions to the Artemis program and value expectations, we knowledgeable our House Launch Methods staff of the potential for roughly 400 fewer positions by April 2025. This can require 60-day notices of involuntary layoff be issued to impacted staff in coming weeks, in accordance with the Employee Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.”
“We’re working with our buyer and searching for alternatives to redeploy staff throughout our firm to attenuate job losses and retain our proficient teammates.”
If the SLS will get canceled, NASA will likely be with no launch automobile to get to the Moon. Cynics would say that Musk is making a void for SpaceX to fill and proceed to select up profitable authorities contracts. Nevertheless, SpaceX doesn’t produce a rocket that meets the Artemis program’s wants. Growth points with SpaceX’s Starship have brought about NASA to think about dropping the lunar touchdown side of Artemis III.
Whereas critics will justify the SLS cancellation with the billions of {dollars} in value overruns, Artemis was already working on a shoestring price range. Over 14 years up to now, the brand new moon program has spent over $93 billion. When adjusted for inflation, the Apollo program spent $182 billion over its total 14-year existence. Artemis additionally has a fraction of Apollo’s workforce. If Musk needs to speak about wasteful spending, he ought to decrease his proper arm and have a look at the Starship rockets exploding over the Caribbean.
