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Crew won't be launching on Starship any time soon. IIRC the approach being taken for Nasa's human landing system (still several years away) will have the crew l
by chriswarbo 3y ago
Crew won't be launching on Starship any time soon. IIRC the approach being taken for Nasa's human landing system (still several years away) will have the crew launch on SLS, a Starship launching uncrewed and getting topped up in-orbit by tanker ships. Crew will board in lunar orbit to descend/ascend: nobody will be on the booster-assisted part, and launching from the moon will use different thrusters situated higher-up the ship body to avoid digging a hole.
There are private flights proposed, but AFAIK there's no firm schedule. The approach to certification is similar to Falcon 9: have a long series of successful launches. (Unlike e.g. SLS or the Shuttle, which are crew rated during development).
Edit: Maybe you're thinking of Nasa's SLS rocket, which had a successful launch and is meant to be taking crew on a lunar fly-by soon (probably slipped from this year)? (SLS is orange and white with side boosters; Starship is silver and black with fins)