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# Fun with serious SLS rocket headlines
- URL: https://jatan.space/fun-with-serious-sls-rocket-headlines/
- Published: 2022-11-21T18:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-01-26T12:07:31.000Z
- Author: Jatan Mehta

I've been having some fun writing eerily reflective headlines on my [Moon Monday newsletter](https://jatan.space/tag/moon-monday) about the clumsy progress of NASA’s [SLS rocket](https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/overview.html) that cost [$23 billion](https://www.planetary.org/articles/why-we-have-the-sls).

- [NASA’s Moon rocket crawls to the launchpad](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-69/)
- [NASA’s Moon rocket just won’t move fast enough](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-72/)
- [The SLS rocket’s wet dress rehearsal comes out dry](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-73/)
- [NASA tightens its grip on SLS](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-77/)
- [The launch tower that’s still an artist’s render](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-81/)
- [NASA is sticking with the SLS rocket for Artemis IX and beyond](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-86/)
- [NASA wants a SLS rocket to liftoff every year, eventually](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-88/)
- [Artemis I Moon launch palpable at last](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-89/)
- [The Sun isn’t rising for the SLS just yet](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-92/)
- [A notorious hydrogen leak stops brimming SLS rocket from blasting off of Earth](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-93/)
- [NASA wants the SLS rocket and its teams to withstand a storm](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-96/)
- [NASA’s SLS rocket is on the launchpad again, hopefully for the last time](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-102/)
- [NASA’s SLS rocket faced yet another storm](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-103/)

The SLS finally [did launch](https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-104/) the much-awaited [Artemis I Moon mission](https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis-i), and that’s amazing, but my job as a space writer isn’t to be a blind cheerleader for whatever space agencies and research institutes say about their missions and programs. I also need to assess and inform people at large about if and how things are progressing, especially when taxpayer money is involved. I love NASA’s [Artemis](https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis) Moon plans overall but for a crufty rocket that’s not only [years late but also billions of dollar over budget](https://www.planetary.org/articles/why-we-have-the-sls), some harsh reality checks are warranted.

![](https://jatan.space/content/images/2024/11/nasa-sls-rocket-at-the-launchpad-final-test.jpg)

NASA’s SLS rocket, standing atop its mobile launcher, at Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on March 18, 2022\. [Image: NASA / Kim Shiflett](https://flickr.com/photos/nasakennedy/51954827811)