NASA chose SpaceX
Posted: 19 Apr 2021, 14:10For the lander in the Artemis program.
This is not such a surprise as SpaceX is leading the world in just about everything space. What was a real shocker was that they chose Only SpaceX. This is unheard of, NASA always chooses two options and uses the best and holds the second one back as a spare to be used if needed.
For the ISS crewed launch capability, Boeing was to be the primary and SpaceX was to be the spare. Except Boeing was too late, screwed up the first launch to the station and wound up getting later and later and has to do a second uncrewed launch to the station before taking crew. By which time SpaceX will be well into their 3rd crew mission to the ISS. The real thing that is hard to justify, though, is that Boeing charged nearly twice as much as SpaceX and then delivered half the goods. Even though SpaceX suffered months and months of delay when they blew up the first dragon capsule and NASA wanted to examine everything down to the bogroll being used in the toilets.... SpaceX knew, within 48 hours, exactly what the fault was. NASA wanted to be super sure it was the fault, in 10 copies.
I'm sure this is a large part of what drove NASA to choose SpaceX and SpaceX alone, for the Artemis lander.
Meanwhile they will still be launching the crew on SLS. But SLS only has rocket engines for 8 launches, all second hand and all salvaged from the Shuttle. This time these engines will be lost with every launch because, unlike the shuttle, which they got these rocket engines from, the SLS launcher will be lost at sea and the rocket engines with it.
Meanwhile SpaceX ploughs ahead with their Starship which is being built to go to Mars. They will do some static fires on their SN15 rocket this week with a possible (but not really probable), test later this week. They are also launching more astronauts to the ISS later this week too.
Meanwhile Starlink continues to grow and testers in the UK are finding that years of poor internet service, with BT unwilling to give better, are being replaced with a service which is not any slower than 50mb/s.
It is an interesting time in the space business.
This is not such a surprise as SpaceX is leading the world in just about everything space. What was a real shocker was that they chose Only SpaceX. This is unheard of, NASA always chooses two options and uses the best and holds the second one back as a spare to be used if needed.
For the ISS crewed launch capability, Boeing was to be the primary and SpaceX was to be the spare. Except Boeing was too late, screwed up the first launch to the station and wound up getting later and later and has to do a second uncrewed launch to the station before taking crew. By which time SpaceX will be well into their 3rd crew mission to the ISS. The real thing that is hard to justify, though, is that Boeing charged nearly twice as much as SpaceX and then delivered half the goods. Even though SpaceX suffered months and months of delay when they blew up the first dragon capsule and NASA wanted to examine everything down to the bogroll being used in the toilets.... SpaceX knew, within 48 hours, exactly what the fault was. NASA wanted to be super sure it was the fault, in 10 copies.
I'm sure this is a large part of what drove NASA to choose SpaceX and SpaceX alone, for the Artemis lander.
Meanwhile they will still be launching the crew on SLS. But SLS only has rocket engines for 8 launches, all second hand and all salvaged from the Shuttle. This time these engines will be lost with every launch because, unlike the shuttle, which they got these rocket engines from, the SLS launcher will be lost at sea and the rocket engines with it.
Meanwhile SpaceX ploughs ahead with their Starship which is being built to go to Mars. They will do some static fires on their SN15 rocket this week with a possible (but not really probable), test later this week. They are also launching more astronauts to the ISS later this week too.
Meanwhile Starlink continues to grow and testers in the UK are finding that years of poor internet service, with BT unwilling to give better, are being replaced with a service which is not any slower than 50mb/s.
It is an interesting time in the space business.