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+--- Thread: Article As NASA watches Starship closely, here’s what the agency wants to see next (/thread-16018.html)
As NASA watches Starship closely, here’s what the agency wants to see next - C C - Jun 12, 2024
As NASA watches Starship closely, here’s what the agency wants to see next
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/06/as-nasa-watches-starship-closely-heres-what-the-agency-wants-to-see-next/
Few people were happier with the successful outcome of last week's test flight of SpaceX's Starship launch system than a NASA engineer named Catherine Koerner.
[...] In recent months, NASA officials like Koerner have been grappling with the reality that not all of this hardware is likely to be ready for the planned September 2026 launch date for the Artemis III mission. In particular, the agency is concerned about Starship's readiness as a "Human Landing System." While SpaceX is pressing forward rapidly with a test campaign, there is still a lot of work to be done to get the vehicle down to the lunar surface and safely back into lunar orbit.
For these reasons, as Ars previously reported, NASA and SpaceX are planning for the possibility of modifying the Artemis III mission. Instead of landing on the Moon, a crew would launch in the Orion spacecraft and rendezvous with Starship in low-Earth orbit. This would essentially be a repeat of the Apollo 9 mission, buying down risk and providing a meaningful stepping stone between Artemis missions.
Officially, NASA maintains that the agency will fly a crewed lunar landing, the Artemis III mission, in September 2026. But almost no one in the space community regards that launch date as more than aspirational. Some of my best sources have put the most likely range of dates for such a mission from 2028 to 2032. A modified Artemis III mission, in low-Earth orbit, would therefore bridge a gap between Artemis II and an eventual landing.
Koerner has declined interview requests from Ars to discuss this, but during the Space Studies Board, she acknowledged seeing these reports on modifying Artemis III. She was then asked directly whether there was any validity to them. Here is her response in full... [...] That is a long way of saying that if SpaceX's Starship is not ready in 2026, NASA is actively considering alternative plans... (MORE - details)
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Cynic's Corner: NASA could do its job to help speed things up by complaining to the government about the latter's bureaucratic agencies hampering SpaceX with their lethargic approval processes. Getting rid of Biden (or his replacement if he steps down due to dementia) in the next election would also be a major help in that area. But NASA itself has been a "both ends of the GI tract" dolly of these playboy agencies for so long that it's little more than a passive mascot on halter and leash.