Summary
Elon Musk and his advisers are pressuring Trump to cancel NASA’s $24 billion Space Launch System (SLS), citing high costs and outdated technology.
GOP lawmakers from Alabama and Texas oppose the move due to job losses and national security concerns.
Critics favor SpaceX’s cheaper, reusable Starship, but supporters argue SLS has already flown successfully and is more powerful.
Former NASA administrator Bill Nelson believes SLS will survive, as Trump likely wants to be the president who oversees the next moon landing.
Yeah, Starship is definitely not ready for primetime. Maybe cancel SLS after SpaceX has flown a Starship mission around the moon.
It’s not the correct architecture for making it to the moon. Starship/SuperHeavy is an absolute beast for LEO but they are nowhere close to being able to make it to the moon with that system. I wish Super Heavy all the luck and success but it’s frustrating when they keep pushing it for other roles without acknowledging the major issues that come with staging so low in the atmosphere
Agreed, though I’m still interested in some “assemble in orbit” lunar architectures. No need to lug the whole Starship out there, but it can put significant mass into orbit. You could build an Apollo style lander out of three or four launched components, I suspect.
https://medium.com/@ToryBrunoULA/the-secrets-of-rocket-design-revealed-e2c7fc89694c
This is a pretty good article that gets into the nitty gritty of some of the issues. Disclaimer: it’s written by the CEO of SpaceX’s main competition but he’s well regarded in the industry.