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It is going to be interesting to see what happens to SLS once SS/SH starts flying. I am guessing there is going to be big public campaign for NASA to cancel SLS
by woodandsteel 7y ago
It is going to be interesting to see what happens to SLS once SS/SH starts flying. I am guessing there is going to be big public campaign for NASA to cancel SLS and go with the SpaceX craft.
- Ajedi32 7y agoYeah, I've been wondering about this too. In my opinion, it's been apparent for some time now that newer commercial launch providers are going to render SLS obsolete too early in its lifecycle for it to be worth the ongoing costs of continuing to develop it. You might even argue that it's already obsolete, as despite it still potentially being the most capable rocket for some subset of missions, the per-launch costs are so high it might arguably be better to re-architect those missions to use multiple launches of a cheaper vehicle rather than launch on SLS. (You can launch 10 reusable Falcon Heavys for the cost of a single SLS launch.) NASA/Congress has been stubbornly continuing to develop SLS despite that, but how much longer will they be able to hold out? Surely they won't be able to justify continued spending on SLS once there's another operational rocket that's both more capable in every respect, and a couple orders of magnitude cheaper to operate? So at what point will they finally give up? Are they going to wait until after Starship hops? Until after it reaches orbit? Until after it achieves in-orbit refueling? Until after it lands on the Moon? Until after it lands on the moon, with crew? When?