For this reason, the House Appropriations Bill calls for the space agency to “evaluate alternatives” to the Exploration Upper Stage.
One of these, as Ars reported last year, is the Centaur V upper stage built by United Launch Alliance, which is already flight-proven. Another option is a “short” version of the upper stage Blue Origin currently flies on its New Glenn rocket. Sources indicated that Blue has already begun work on a modified version of the stage that could fit within the shroud of the SLS rocket. This smaller version of the stage, like the Centaur V, would allow NASA to continue launching the SLS rocket using the existing launch tower in Florida.
Centaur V makes so much more sense to me than Boeing blowing billions.
Of course. They don’t give a shit about space or science if it can’t turn a quick profit and/or blow people up.
So are you of the opinion that sticking with the development of the Exploration Upper Stage would be the best course of action for the Artemis program as a whole?
The Artemis program depends on Starship, since they’re using it for the lander. I cannot imagine a world where starship works well enough to do that, but can’t do any of the things SLS is supposed to be used for.
That being the case, they should abandon SLS altogether
The Blue Origin HLS is another option, but it also requires multi launch and orbital cryo refilling. It’s planned for Artemis 5, so who knows if or when we’ll see real progress on that.
They should also abandon Starship. Nobody knows when that thing is going to work, if ever. They could have done a multi launch architecture based on available launch vehicles long ago.
The Dynetics lander would have been so cool if the engineering was actually sound.
And pour one out for Altair?
