Those costs are 33% over the last 2017 report to congress which triggers congressional hearings. They now are targeting a November 2021 launch date.

NASA and the contractors have gotten over $20 billion since 2011 for the SLS program. The SLS is an attempt to make a super-heavy launch vehicle out of mostly Space Shuttle components. The SLS costs do not include charges for the same contractors to use Space Shuttle components for the Constellation project. Through three decades of Space Shuttle operation, various follow-on and replacements for the Space Shuttle were partially developed but not finished.

In the late 1980s, there was the Shuttle II program. In the 1980s, NASA and the Air Force worked on the X-30 National Aerospace Plane. The Rockwell X-30 NASP was canceled in 1995 after about $5.5 billion was spent. The X-30 could have had more secret Department of Defence money.