NASA’s big rocket that is supposed to send people to the Moon by 2024 is facing major budget and development issues. NASA’s inspector general has issued a report that reveals all the problems related to finances of the rocket named Space Launch System (SLS).

Source: The Verge

It is one of the most important systems as NASA was expecting it to be more powerful than any of its predecessors. The original plan suggested that it would be able to lift more than 200000 pounds of raw material into low Earth orbit and will carry people into space.

Source: The Verge

SLS is quite important for lunar explorations and therefore, the inspector general has raised concerns regarding its development. The governor contractors Boeing, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop German, collaborated with NASA to work on the project.

Boeing is responsible for most of the construction of the vehicle while Aerojet is making the engines. Northrop signed the contract for boosters that would provide extra thrust during lift-off.

Source: The Verge

However, all the contractors experienced major setbacks which caused the price of development to increase by $2 billion and the time for manufacturing was delayed by two years. So it has been revealed that the primary plan was already out of budget and behind schedule by more than 33 per cent that it was expected to be.

Due to the deadline, some changes have been suggested which NASA has agreed to, but it is still unclear whether SLS would be completed in the given time.