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The second flight, which will carry astronauts to the Moon, could launch as early as 2024 Extremely unlikely. The first Apollo landing was the result of years

• nickik 6y ago
  Apollo was more then just a lander, it was a gigantic new rocket, a capsule, a service module a lander and an accent stage. SpaceX is by no means a small company, its arguably the most successful space company ever. They are also the most vertically integrated space company. They launch far more then anybody, largest sat operator, largest provider of cargo and crew for human space flight. Also your comparison completely misses a few things, Apollo had to invent a huge amount of things and build infrastructure that is now standard and well known well understood. Just think about the difference in complexity of computers. NASA still has to knowledge and much more knowledge about the moon and human space flight since then. SpaceX can reuse a huge amount of things from existing vehicles and capsules. The Raptors have been under serious development since 2014. Apollo was a huge number of different very unique parts, Starship uses Raptor engines for all parts from earth to the moon. 2024 is still a very difficult target but its not because you need to develop a whole new industry. Its because the vehicle is absurdly big and has crazy operations.