Slightly more kindly, SLS is based on the old-school tried and true model of build a big expendable rocket, launch your payload on it and simply pay what it costs; it was conventional. Starship has tremendous potential IF it can do something no one has ever done before: economically reusable upper stages that can support refueling in low Earth orbit. If Starship can do that, it would make SLS/Orion superfluous. Using Starship as the ferry from NRHO to the lunar surface and back is a kludge but it allowed the proponents of Artemis to hedge their bets somewhat.
Falcon Heavy is already capable of putting half the tonnage of SLS into orbit for an order of magnitude less cost. At that price differential, you should just be using 2 Falcon Heavies and saving 80% of the cost. No need to wait for Starship.
This would require mastering Earth Orbit Rendezvous assembly of mission elements like was considered for Apollo at one point (three or so “Saturn III’s” rather than one Saturn V); again, the powers that be wanted to stick with the conservative approach. But really the real reason is that the mission is being driven by the rocket, not the other way around. Hence the “Senate Launch System”.
I’m fascinated by the tracking data. Orion’s speed was dropping off very rapidly as it was coasting away from earth, but now at around 192,000 miles away, and just under 90,000 miles to the moon, its speed is barely changing as the moon’s pull starts rapidly increasing – it’s currently going around 2000 mph and losing just 1 mph about about every 30-40 seconds. In a few more hours it’ll start slowly speeding up again as it approaches the moon.
Also just saw a video from the crew. Wow, lots has changed since Apollo! High quality video and perfect sound! Here’s the video – it’s the second video near the bottom of the article.
SLS is basically a Shuttle stack, replacing the Shuttle orbiter with a capsule. The Shuttle’s RS-25 engines and Thiokol solid boosters are still used, though no longer recovered and reused. It’s the end result of the belief that reusing Shuttle parts was the economical way to go – but the economics of rocketry has changed since 1971, and the Shuttle itself wasn’t a great example of cheap access to space. But Shuttle and SLS have given people jobs in Utah and California and Louisiana and probably other places too.
It helps to remember that the dearMoon project from 2018 was scheduled to perform, in 2023, a (very artistic) circumlunar flight using a Starship. Yet here we are, 3 years after that deadline, and it’s the government project that’s getting there first. The Starship project has a lot of potential, they’ve achieved some elements of their program, but they’re still horribly late on their schedule, because that schedule is always based on how Melon Husk was feeling when he tweeted it, rather than the (impressive) capabilities of the humans at SpaceX when given unlimited budgets and effective immunity from human laws.
What’s this Copy Moon Joy thing I keep hearing ?
This interchange: https://www.instagram.com/nasasolarsystem/reel/DWveSyoAukO/
They are getting very good views of the moon now, and enjoying it.
Has anyone made the calculation of how much money would be saved if the federal government simply gave all the aerospace and supplier people their wages as welfare checks?
I was trying to figure out why, with Orion currently 219,418 miles from the earth and 58,575 miles from the moon, it is still slowing down, though at a very low rate – currently moving at 1,567 mph away from the earth. Apparently it’s because the moon’s gravity is acting on it in an inefficient angular direction, because Orion is not heading for where the moon currently is, but rather, for where it will be when they get there.
So the speedup I described will start happening, but much later than I had simplistically anticipated. D’oh! Space flight is complicated!
Hey, it’s not rocket science.
Oh, wait, maybe it is.
It’s not Rocket Surgery for sure.
Timeline for tomorrow (lunar flyby!). All times are Eastern and may change based on real-time operations:
Monday, April 6
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12:41 a.m.: Orion enters lunar sphere of influence at 41,072 miles from the Moon.
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1:30 p.m.: The science officer in mission control will brief the crew on their science goals for the upcoming flyby.
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1:56 p.m.: The Artemis II crew is expected surpass the record previously set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970 for the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth.
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2:45 p.m.: Lunar observations begin.
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6:44 p.m.: Mission control expects to temporarily lose communication with the crew as the Orion spacecraft passes behind the Moon.
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6:45 p.m.: During “Earthset,” Earth will glide behind the Moon from Orion’s perspective.
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7:02 p.m.: Orion reaches its closest approach to the Moon at 4,070 miles above the surface.
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7:07 p.m.: Crew reach their maximum distance from Earth during the mission.
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7:25 p.m.: “Earthrise” marks Earth coming back into view on the opposite edge of the Moon.
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7:25 p.m.: NASA’s Mission Control Center should re -acquire communication with the astronauts.
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8:35-9:32 p.m.: During a solar eclipse, the Sun will pass behind the Moon from the crew’s perspective.
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9:20 p.m.: Lunar observations conclude.
Tuesday, April 7
- 1:25 p.m.: Orion exits the lunar sphere of influence at 41,072 miles from the Moon.
Eh, I bet they’ve snuck a peek already.
I hope they’ve already had a look at these too.
plot-twist: Based on AI-demands, there will be no more suicide-missions, just really loooong regular missions.
Wasn’t it somebody at Mission Control during the Apollo 13 mission who said, “Well, we’re in the hands of Sir Isaac Newton now”?
Less than 2 hours to go to Lunar Influence. Down to 1,399 MPH as of this post.
Jim Lovell is credited with saying that.
That distance figure doesn’t agree with the data NASA is providing the media, which says that right now (12:21 AM EDT) Orion is already 40,596 miles from the moon, and its speed is still falling (currently 1,366 mph). Hopefully the time of the start of acceleration is right, though.
ETA: 12:30 AM – 1,364 mph, 40,311 miles to moon
I think this is because the capsule is going past the orbit of the Moon ahead of where the Moon is. At this point, it’s still more under Earth’s gravity than the Moon’s.