Eric Berger has the latest. Killing EUS would also eliminate the need for ML-2. It could be that we’ll have to continue wasting money on the SLS core and Orion for a while, but it would free up some funds to actually get back to the Moon soon.
Eric Berger has the latest. Killing EUS would also eliminate the need for ML-2. It could be that we’ll have to continue wasting money on the SLS core and Orion for a while, but it would free up some funds to actually get back to the Moon soon.
Hardly ideal, but something that can be lived with – provided that lunatic nonsense about flying people on the first flight of the new stack goes away along with the EUS. An unmanned test between Artemis 3 and the next manned Artemis mission isn’t going to have any influence on whether or not we can Beat the Chinese[tm] – that’s all on Artemis 3.
If we’re also still going to be stuck with Gateway, perhaps the unmanned test of the notional new stack can carry a piece of it – though it will have to be a piece that can dock with PPE-HALO autonomously.
If SLS-Orion can only be killed on the installment plan that is still superior to leaving it to shamble on indefinitely.
I have yet to see how Gateway is usable, as it’s in a two-week halo orbit that is virtually useless for a surface abort.