# Space Launch System The Space Launch System (SLS) is [[NASA]]'s heavy-lift rocket for the [[Artemis Program]], the effort to return astronauts to the Moon. It is the last big rocket designed and owned by the U.S. government, and it has become the main exhibit in a long argument over whether NASA should build its own rockets or buy rides from companies like [[SpaceX]]. On 1 April 2026, SLS launched Artemis II, sending four astronauts on a roughly ten-day trip around the Moon. It was the first time humans had traveled to the Moon's vicinity since 1972. The crew included NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canada's Jeremy Hansen. ## Built from the Shuttle Congress ordered SLS in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, after [[Barack Obama]] cancelled NASA's previous Moon program. Lawmakers required NASA to reuse Space Shuttle hardware and contracts, which preserved jobs at the companies and NASA centers that had built the Shuttle. SLS uses Shuttle-era main engines, which are thrown away after each flight, and longer versions of the Shuttle's solid boosters. [[Boeing]] builds the core stage, [[Northrop Grumman]] the boosters, and the engines come from Aerojet Rocketdyne, now part of [[L3Harris]]. The rocket's work is spread across many states, and Alabama's Marshall Space Flight Center manages it. Because of all this, critics nicknamed it the "Senate Launch System," a reference to the senators, especially Alabama's Richard Shelby, who protected its budget. ## The cost argument NASA's inspector general estimated in 2021 that each of the first four Artemis launches would cost about $4.1 billion for the rocket, the Orion capsule and ground operations together. SLS first flew, without a crew, in November 2022, years late and billions over budget. Critics compare that with commercial rockets that cost a small fraction as much per launch and are reusable. Supporters reply that SLS is the only rocket that has actually sent a crewed capsule to the Moon in the 21st century, and that relying entirely on commercial rockets would trade one risk for another. ## Its future is being decided now - **May 2025** — The [[Trump Administration]]'s budget request proposed retiring SLS and Orion after Artemis III. - **July 2025** — Congress pushed back. NASA provisions written in Sen. [[Ted Cruz]]'s Commerce Committee put $4.1 billion for SLS rockets for Artemis IV and V, plus $2.6 billion for the lunar Gateway, into the [[Big Beautiful Bill]]. Musk publicly objected. - **27 February 2026** — NASA Administrator [[Jared Isaacman]] restructured Artemis. He cancelled the planned bigger upper stage for SLS and turned Artemis III into a 2027 test flight in Earth orbit, docking with commercial lunar landers from SpaceX and [[Blue Origin]]. The first crewed landing moved to Artemis IV in 2028. He said NASA would aim for at least one Artemis flight a year. The pattern is clear: the administration and its commercial-space allies want to phase SLS out; Congress, protecting jobs in key states, keeps funding it; and NASA leadership is shrinking its role without cancelling it outright. ## Why it's on the map SLS sits where two of this wiki's concerns meet. It is a case study in congressional pork: a rocket whose design was partly dictated by protecting existing contractors and districts. It is also a check on the opposite risk. Cancelling it would leave America's Moon program dependent on [[Starship]], built by a company owned by [[Elon Musk]], who also has deep ties to the administration making the decision. Whoever you think is right, SLS is where "government waste" and "privatized dependency" are argued over the same piece of hardware. ## See also - [[Artemis Program]] — the Moon program SLS serves - [[NASA]] · [[Jared Isaacman]] — the agency and its administrator - [[Saturn V]] — the Apollo-era benchmark - [[Space Shuttle]] — the program SLS was built from - [[Starship]] · [[SpaceX]] — the commercial alternative - [[Space Hub]] — the parent hub