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Ask HN: Why is NASA confident with Artemis 1 given its less testing than SpaceX?
Shouldn't NASA try some less ambitious tests first before going to the Moon?
- detaro 4y agoI'm not sure they are particularly confident on that given the delays and such, but on the other hand why not aim for the (literal) moon first go and at least have a chance of getting a lot of results from that first launch already?
- amichail 4y agoSo why doesn’t SpaceX go to the Moon with the upcoming Starship launch?
- detaro 4y agoI'd guess: Because SpaceX isn't making Starship as specifically to go the moon but also for commercial orbital launches, because sending it to the moon involves orbital refueling which they might not have ready yet (or don't want to spend launch opportunities on), because they intend to have and operate more of them so the lost opportunity cost of not using a launch fully isn't as high, because the test flights to the moon are a NASA project (afaik) and they are waiting until NASA wants to do (and pay for) them, ...