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ELI5:Why is it difficult even today to land on the Moon when the US did it almost 50 years ago with 50 year old technology?
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And that we let SpaceX propose one of the least efficient imaginable mission plans that requires a dozen technological breakthroughs to accomplish doesn't help.
Loving watching this jump from +8 to -2 as the muskrats pile in to defend their leader. This is a totally incontrovertible statement if you are at all familiar with the mission plan.
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Anybody thinking this isn't totally accurate is pretty wild.
Starship hasn't even made orbital velocity and still needs to
- Have the booster land and be caught by "the chopsticks"
- Have 1 happen in a way that it's refuelable without major repairs for quick turnaround for the refueling missions.
- Make in flight fuel transfers.
- Make human certified flights despite not even having gotten to orbit yet.
- Make those refueling missions 15+ times with no significant issues to allow for the moon transit.
I could go on but just those are a decade from happening at the current rate. SpaceX is massively behind development schedule and will remain so largely because their mission design was insanely over complex.
And despite all those problems they have to solve still, they can blow up a hundred starships in the cost and time span it took the goddamn SLS to launch once.
Its going to be late, you are absolutely right about that, since Spacex Elon always aims for impossible deadlines. But you can't argue it's going to be more expensive than any of the competition, since the competition doesn't even exist, other than the crazily overpriced SLS.
Hell, they managed to develop reusable Falcon 9 in a fraction of the cost that it took NASA to develop their "reusable" vehicle. And they made their own reason to keep launching them recouping the cost of both development and failures, Starlink. Originally Starship was a new method to launch even more starlink satelites per launch.
Dude the competition absolutely does exist. Blue Origin got a HLS contract and is making progress faster than SpaceX is because they're going for things that work and not things that sound Sci fi.
There's this stupid idea that SpaceX is the only game in town among musk rats as though there aren't like 5 billionaire space companies out there all competing in the space.
The reason musk got the HLS contract was because the interim NASA administrator was basically bribed to override the normal process and give them the contract regardless of ability to fulfill. She's now working for SpaceX.
If you care about billionaires buying the government at all, you should care a lot about the corruption that resulted in SpaceX getting to propose this utterly idiotic mission plan.
And if you think starlink makes them any money you should look into the total cost of the units, the satellites, and the cost of service, because Starlink is a money pit that will never recoup its cost.
Blue Origin got a HLS contract and is making progress faster
What progress have they made in the last few months? Released a few more CGI animations?
Number of rockets launched into orbit by Electron Labs this year (so far): 4
Number of rockets launched into orbit by SpaceX THIS MONTH: 10
Number of rockets launched into orbit by Blue Origin: zero. Never done it.
Don't get me wrong, I welcome more competition. But Blue Origin is all talk, no action.
like 5 billionaire space companies out there all competing in the space
Care to name them?
Yeah, I didn't even bother to reply myself.
New sheppard as competition is laughable at best from blue origin. Blue origin being awarded the contracts on NASA HLS without even an orbital capable rocket is laughable, without even mentioning the hypocrisy to even doubt why SpaceX was awarded the contracts in the first place and not stopping to think what even Blue origin can bring to the table.
Progress on the HLS from blue origin, another shiny MOCKUP of the lander last november. While spacex is out there blowing complete starships after starship to get shit done.
I would love to see actual competition on the new space race. But as things stand right now, Spacex is so, SO far ahead I seriously think they are going to establish a monopoly on launch systems for the next decade at least. Even if New Glenn doesn't fail on its maiden flight, it will be a competitor for Falcon Heavy, but not by a large margin. And we have yet to see that reusability