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That's totally 100% fair critique. But SLS is in no way able to go to moon or earth with what they are currently building? What makes this so weird to me is t

That's totally 100% fair critique. But SLS is in no way able to go to moon or earth with what they are currently building? What makes this so weird to me is that SpaceX does have Dragon already which just brought more people into orbit this week - e.g. proven and way cheaper of what SLS is supposed to do in this mission - unless I'm missing or not understanding something. So you're right the starship portion to moon (and hopefully mars) is similar to SLS in that it's not realized ye But looking at the part SLS is supposed to play in this production, that role has already been acted successfully by Dragon. I'd say spacex gets the space oscar for it, though i doubt they get the trophy this weekend :)

wmf 6y ago
Orion does have several spec advantages over Crew Dragon such as larger volume and longer endurance. https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-key-differences-between-the-SpaceX-Dragon-Lockheed-Orion-and-Boeing-CST-100-spacecrafts https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-key-differences-between-t... Given SpaceX's dramatically faster and cheaper development, it might be possible to deliver an upgraded Crew Dragon Plus (or whatever you want to call it) before Orion is ready.
- skissane 6y ago
  > it might be possible to deliver an upgraded Crew Dragon Plus (or whatever you want to call it) before Orion is ready. Orion basically is ready. There is an uncrewed full stack test flight around the Moon scheduled for November this year, Artemis I. Decent chance it will slip by a few months, but still highly likely to happen by early next year. And then in 2023 they have planned a crewed test flight (orbiting the Moon but not landing, like Apollo 8). I think SpaceX wants to focus as much of their development resources as possible on Starship. They'd rather focus their energies on that rather than on coming up with new versions of Crew Dragon. Starship, if successful, is going to kill SLS/Orion in the medium-to-long term. I don't think there is any great benefit to SpaceX in trying to kill it in the short-term. That'd be walking into a potentially expensive and risky political battle with vested interests in Congress, and why get them offside when doing so isn't on your critical path to your ultimate goal?

wmf 6y ago

Orion does have several spec advantages over Crew Dragon such as larger volume and longer endurance. https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-key-differences-between-the-SpaceX-Dragon-Lockheed-Orion-and-Boeing-CST-100-spacecrafts https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-key-differences-between-t... Given SpaceX's dramatically faster and cheaper development, it might be possible to deliver an upgraded Crew Dragon Plus (or whatever you want to call it) before Orion is ready.

skissane 6y ago
> it might be possible to deliver an upgraded Crew Dragon Plus (or whatever you want to call it) before Orion is ready. Orion basically is ready. There is an uncrewed full stack test flight around the Moon scheduled for November this year, Artemis I. Decent chance it will slip by a few months, but still highly likely to happen by early next year. And then in 2023 they have planned a crewed test flight (orbiting the Moon but not landing, like Apollo 8). I think SpaceX wants to focus as much of their development resources as possible on Starship. They'd rather focus their energies on that rather than on coming up with new versions of Crew Dragon. Starship, if successful, is going to kill SLS/Orion in the medium-to-long term. I don't think there is any great benefit to SpaceX in trying to kill it in the short-term. That'd be walking into a potentially expensive and risky political battle with vested interests in Congress, and why get them offside when doing so isn't on your critical path to your ultimate goal?