Space Architecture Changes to Boost US Intelligence Gathering

The problem is that the Space Launch System program lacks a clear mission, according to Marco Caceres, director of space studies at the Teal Group Corp., a defense industry think tank. “They’ve toyed with lassoing an asteroid and hauling it to the moon, or using it as a vehicle to take people back to the moon, but it’s not clear why” we’re funding SLS, Caceres said.

The political landscape may have changed, however, now that Russia has blocked sales of its Russian RD-180 rockets, which are used to launch U.S. defense satellites. Russia also has announced that it plans to end its operations on the ISS in 2020, effectively disabling the station. “There’s a good chance that SLS will be developed and built, mainly because politically it just looks bad to not be developing your own national launch vehicle and we have to rely on Russia to launch our astronauts,” Caceres said.