On CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday evening, a feature profiling NASA’s upcoming goal of putting a woman on the moon, also touted the efficiencies of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets.
60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker interviewed Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s first female launch director about the company’s program to head back to the moon with the Artemis program.
He also spoke with Jody Singer, the first woman to run the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama; she also oversees the construction of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that’s headed for the moon, and also the biggest rocket ever made.
While Singer proudly supported SLS as a “national vehicle” since it supports 25,000 jobs across the nation, the program was criticized by Lori Garver, who was second in command at NASA under President Obama’s administration.
It was here, Garver praised SpaceX and the private space sector, saying she would “not have recommended the government build a $27 billion rocket,” when the private sector is doing the same for no cost to U.S. taxpayers.
Specifically, Garver mentioned SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy; she previously supported NASA letting private companies like SpaceX build big rockets, however, Congress had a different goal she says.
Garver references 2010, when the space shuttle was set to be grounded and Congress feared aerospace jobs would disappear with them. That was when the Senate told NASA which plan it should take, selecting Boeing as the contractor for the main contractor for SLS.
“The industry said they would do it for $6 billion in six years. That was the rocket. It’s been $20 billion in 11 years,” said Garver.
According to Garver, the top-down approach by the U.S. government has resulted in a NASA SLS rocket that will cost over $2 billion USD per launch, whereas SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy costs a fraction of that, at $90 million USD per launch, due to the latter being reusable, along with its side boosters, all capable of self-landing autonomously back on Earth.
Blackwell-Thompson responded to Whitaker when asked about NASA’s “old way” when it comes to SLS, which cannot be reused, only to say NASA is using “proven technology”. SLS
NASA has trusted SpaceX rockets so far to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The future Artemis plan for a space station called Gateway will see its components launched by SpaceX in 2024.
When asked by 60 Minutes if NASA should pivot and start relying on SpaceX and commercial launchers for the moon and beyond?
Garver said, “Undoubtedly. We should’ve before now,” adding NASA is capable of making the shift, but when it comes to Congress allowing the move? “Probably not.”
Check out the full 60 Minutes segment below:
