Please join HAL5 at the Downtown Huntsville Public Library on Monday, March 9, 2026, from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM for an in-person public space lecture. Please print and share the program flyer with your friends and work colleagues, and post where allowed. No online option this time, nor recording. Light refreshments during the meeting. A dinner social at a local restaurant will follow the program.
The Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (HAL5)
Your local chapter of the National Space Society (NSS)
presents
Potential Space Exploration Missions by
the Heavy Lift Space Launch System Rocket
With Special Guest
Ben Donahue
Boeing Exploration Launch Systems, Principal Investigator,
Space Launch System (SLS) Mission Planning
Monday, March 9, 2026
5:30 pm to 7:00 pm Central Time
Downtown Huntsville Public Library Auditorium
915 Monroe Street (corner of St. Clair Ave.), Huntsville, Alabama 35801
The public is invited. Admission is FREE. Light refreshments from 5:00 to 5:30.
A dinner social at a local restaurant will follow the meeting.
For more info: call Ronnie Lajoie at 256-509-3833, or email to HAL5@hiwaay.net
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Per the speaker, no Zoom simulcast nor video recordings will be done
Abstract
The NASA Space Launch System's (SLS) heavy lift capability and large fairing will enable a variety of exciting new crewed and uncrewed missions over the next 30 years, including missions to the outer planets. Several such missions, enabled by the SLS, are presented in this talk. Some of these include sample return and crewed missions to Phobos and Mars, landers to Europa and Titan, orbiters to Uranus and Neptune, the Interstellar Probe mission, and balloon missions to Venus and Titan.
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Ben Donahue is a member of Boeing's Space Launch System (SLS) Internal Research & Development Team, as principal Investigator for SLS Mission Planning and Evolution Task. For the last 36 years, Ben has been creating, analyzing and presenting high fidelity, conceptual designs of space vehicles and missions, rocket propulsion systems and upper stages as solutions for potential New NASA missions. Ben was the past configuration lead for Boeing's Altair Lunar Lander contract NASA JSC 2008, past chairman of the AIAA Nuclear Propulsion & Future Flight Technical Committee, and author of over 50 technical papers. Before joining Boeing, Ben worked as a rocket propulsion test engineer at the USAF Arnold Engineering Development Center. Ben received his Mechanical Engineering degree at the University of Alabama in 1981.