Let me guess: SpaceX will be asked to pick up the slack?
For launch, SpaceX, ULA, and Blue Origin seem like the next in line. For crew, SpaceX is currently really the only option.
SLS never really hit any goals just fucking corrupted bullshit
Guess who is one of key contracts on it…
Boeing 🤡
There was no need for another space race anyways.
I don’t care either way but if we are giving these parasites money, they need either deliver under the terms of contract or cash must be clawed back and executives should be given the rope for corruption
Of course this still has to clear Congress, which has a lot of pork based reasons to think differently, but the cracks are showing in Artemis.
The program already relies on Starship or New Glenn being able to deliver crewed landers, so those obsolete SLS. Losing Gateway, the Lunar toll booth, bums me out as a space station fan, but I get it. I’m not clear on how they want to replace Orion yet.
getting rid of SLS makes sense but we actually need gateway to practice for mars. Private companies could probably make their own Orion better
I go back and forth on Gateway. A microgravity research station beyond LEO would be pretty helpful. Beyond that, though, it won’t literally be part of a Mars transit architecture like some long forgotten proposals, and stopping there on the way to the surface is unnecessary added delta-v. SLS+Orion also can’t fly often enough for Gateway to be its own destination or continuously crewed.
In my perfect world, there’d be continuously crewed lunar surface and orbital stations with commercial vehicles flying public and private missions to both. One day…
