Adding systems to support a crew would have cost NASA $600 million to $900 million more and would likely have delayed the flight to 2020, he said.
Even without a crew, the SLS will not be ready to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida until 2019, Lightfoot said, adding that the agency would have a more specific timeframe in about a month.
The delay would push back the rocket’s second flight beyond 2021, said NASA Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier.
The delays are largely due to technical issues encountered during the development of SLS and Orion, as well as tornado damage to the rocket’s manufacturing plant in New Orleans.
By the end of the next fiscal year on September 30, 2018, NASA will have spent $23 billion on the rocket, capsule, launch site and support systems, according to an audit by NASA’s Office of Inspector General.
That excludes $9 billion spent on the mothballed Constellation lunar exploration program, which included initial development of the Orion and a second heavy-lift rocket.
