[forum.nasaspaceflight] jpo234: What happens when SpaceX's Starship succeeds?
I don't expect this thread to have a long life. It easily derails and will probably end in a shouting match. But maybe there can be some fruitful discussion.
We are now seeing real Starship hardware and it seems Elon is convinced that they have solved the major engineering problems. SpaceX targets next year for the first orbital launch of Starship.
There are a number of high profile programs that would, IMHO, become immediately obsolete when Starship comes close to its goals:
* SLS: $1bn per launch? No way...
* LOP-G: A small multi billion dollar outpost while MZ cruises around the moon with a bunch of artists? No way...
* Mars sample return: Multiple billion dollar missions to collect a few pounds of rocks while SpaceX geologists scout the surface? No way...
So, what will happen? | Full discussion at the title link. |
| Now the politically nasty comment. If one assumes that the SpaceX big rockets work then SLS, LOP-G & Mars sample return would be places Prez Trump could mine for money for THE WALL! |
| SIDE ISSUE. A high school kid in Brownsville TX did a Go Fund Me on equipment and ran off to photograph and report on the rocket being built in Boca Chica. He knew there was a border control checkpoint on the highway there so he stopped and chatted with the border officers for a hour or so. They stop and check all trucks so they know everything going up/down the road and told him everything he wanted to know. More then even competitors of SpaceX know. They even told him where to launch his UAVs that SpaceX couldn't stop him. Lots of stuff. Those agents are a OpSec problem. The kid is on twitter. Nothing should happen to him but the border control folks need a lecture from somebody... They told him when the pad would be poured, how many trucks, where to watch them stage, when the real raptors would come and be put in and where to photograph the same, when the fuel tank pieces would arrive... to much .. |
|