No doubt about it: NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) is an impressive sight.

Standing 322 feet tall, the (NYSE: BA)-built SLS stretches twice the length of the space shuttle and is taller than a football field ripped from the Earth and tipped vertical. Powered by a massive L3Harris (NYSE: LHX) engine core and two solid rocket boosters from Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), SLS puts out 12% more take-off thrust than the Saturn V rocket that first sent men to the moon.  

Yet for at least the past half-decade, industry insiders, and even members of Congress, have wondered if the SLS is truly worth it -- "it" being the high and ever-rising cost of SLS, which may necessitate canceling SLS production and switching to a cheaper rocket for Project Artemis, NASA's multidecade program to send humans back to the moon.  

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Source Fool.com