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NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

cnn.com

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Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#71

Post by sofixa »

radu_floricica wrote: post #54

I'm not really sure if keeping a strict schedule has any real relevance here, outside maybe PR and politics. Starships will drop the cost to other bodies in the same way Falcon dropped the cost to orbit. Why would anyone want to invest in a technology and a project that will be obsolete by the time it's implemented?

> Starships will drop the cost to other bodies

Assuming SpaceX can deliver it. They've failed to do a successful test flight with even a fraction of the officially planned capacity. Who knows how long it will take them, if they can even pull it off, to deliver it.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#72

Post by cowsandmilk »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #62
radu_floricica wrote: post #54

I'm not really sure if keeping a strict schedule has any real relevance here, outside maybe PR and politics. Starships will drop the cost to other bodies in the same way Falcon dropped the cost to orbit. Why would anyone want to invest in a technology and a project that will be obsolete by the time it's implemented?

> not really sure if keeping a strict schedule has any real relevance here You don't see the relevance of Artemis III launching in mid-2027 [1] or 2028 versus, say, after November 2028? [1] https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-iii/

Does anyone vote for a president based on their ability to land on the moon?

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#73

Post by ACCount37 »

dotnet00 wrote: post #60
loourr wrote: post #20

Artemis is a joke. You can tell this is politically motivated by their stance on SLS. If they were serious they would give Spacex the SLS contract for being years and years behind schedule.

If they were serious, they'd properly look into ending SLS after the ones that are being built are launched, cancel the upgrade, go after the company that spent the entire launch tower budget before even starting construction, open up bids for rockets to fly Orion (probably Vulcan or New Glenn IIRC), and sort out their space suit issues. Maybe also seriously threaten Boeing with cancelations and restrictions for thei…

Pretty much. Starship is a source of delays - but not the source of delays. Even if Starship HLS was ready to go yesterday, I would still expect Artemis 3 to schedule slip all the way to ~2030.

Getting everyone involved in Artemis to deliver on time, let alone on budget, would require nothing short of divine intervention.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#74

Post by chasd00 »

nerdjon wrote: post #42

At the end of the day competition for SpaceX is a good thing so we don't become reliant on a single company and the whims of the person that owns it. I don't know enough about whether or not they really are behind or if this is just a bit of sensationalized reporting. But this is how it should have likely been from the beginning.

totally, i wish Blue Origin was neck and neck with SpaceX in terms of capabilities and rate of innovation. I'm pretty much a SpaceX superfan but they need the competition.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#75

Post by black6 »

loourr wrote: post #20

Artemis is a joke. You can tell this is politically motivated by their stance on SLS. If they were serious they would give Spacex the SLS contract for being years and years behind schedule.

Can't give up on the Senate Launch System. That'd be political suicide .

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#76

Post by destitude »

askl wrote: post #36
boxed wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to keep two things in your mind at the same time: Elon Musk sometimes say things that are true. Elon Must sometimes say things that are not true. In this case, it's the first one.

> Elon Musk sometimes say things that are true. Has this ever happened in the last 10 years?

Catching of a booster which everyone else thought was the stupidest craziest thing ever and they did it on first try.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#77

Post by delichon »

ekjhgkejhgk wrote: post #69
raverbashing wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah who is going to deliver faster and more reliable than SpaceX? Boeing? LM? Doubt

Not sure if you're being sarcastic. Have they managed to get starship to orbit yet?

> Not sure if you're being sarcastic. Have they managed to get to orbit anything bigger than a banana?

Yes, about 4,000 metric tons. My IP packets are traveling through part of it now.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#78

Post by saubeidl »

radu_floricica wrote: post #54

I'm not really sure if keeping a strict schedule has any real relevance here, outside maybe PR and politics. Starships will drop the cost to other bodies in the same way Falcon dropped the cost to orbit. Why would anyone want to invest in a technology and a project that will be obsolete by the time it's implemented?

That is assuming Starship succeeds. Elon's track record hasn't exactly been stellar as of late.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#79

Post by Waterluvian »

cowsandmilk wrote: post #72
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not really sure if keeping a strict schedule has any real relevance here You don't see the relevance of Artemis III launching in mid-2027 [1] or 2028 versus, say, after November 2028? [1] https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-iii/

Does anyone vote for a president based on their ability to land on the moon?

Holy crap yes. Millions of Americans vote for a president based on exceedingly dumber reasons too.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#80

Post by JohnFen »

inglor_cz wrote: post #70
JohnFen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know who else can, but I do seriously doubt SpaceX is going to be able to deliver within the next decade or so either.

"Not within the next decade" (e.g. not until 2041) is a long time. The first prototype of Starship only did its first hop in July 2019, so 6 years ago. The first flight integrated test only happened 2,5 years ago. Nowadays they can return to Earth already and catch the booster. Why would you expect the rest of the development to drag until 2041?

I expect it to take a long time because they seems to be a long way off from achieving it. Their track record so far isn't great. They've consistently blown every timeline they've put forth, and by a lot.

Remember, they said that they'd have a rapidly reusable launch system going by March 2013. In 2011, Musk said that he'd be sending humans to Mars sometime between 2021 and 2031, but it doesn't look like they're anywhere near being able to do that yet.

Also remember that they started working on all of this in 2008.

I mean, I could be wrong! But I don't think I am.

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