NBC News: NASA's $17B Moon Rocket Just Might Not Fly

Behind schedule and over budget, some are questioning whether NASA's $17-billion moon rocket, Space Launch System, is worth using, particularly since SpaceX might be as much as 11 times cheaper per flight, according to NBC News.

"We're not committed to any one contractor," Vice President Mike Pence had told a National Space Council meeting in March. "If our current contractors can't meet this objective, then we'll find ones that will."

Also, per the report, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that "there is nothing sacred here that is off the table."

NASA has spent eight years and $17.0 billion on the SLS, which was supposed to cost $10.6 billion. According to NBC News, experts expect each flight to cost $1 billion, which is about 11 times more than SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket that already debuted in 2018.

The first unmanned test flight for SLS is scheduled for 2020, with a trip to the moon having been planned for 2024.

With lawmakers representing the districts in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi tied to the SLS, ditching the albatross might not fly in Congress.

"You can blame George Washington and Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson," former astronaut Terry Virts told NBC News. "When they made the Constitution, they made these things called congressional districts. And the goal of Congress is to bring home the bacon for their districts."

• China Is Waiting for NASA to Blink in the New Space Race
• Pence Pledges That US Will Go to the Moon, Mars and Beyond