Over at Aviation Week, Frank Morring says the NASA studies continue:
Michael Gazarik, NASA’s space technology program director, says that CPST and the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket currently under development are complementary technologies. “To explore deep space we need a heavy-lift vehicle — SLS — and we need this technology. We need to be able to demonstrate how to handle cryogenic fluids in space.”
He has to say that. It’s literally politically incorrect to say anything else, and will be until SLS dies. But the reality is that propellant storage on orbit is essential to spacefaring. Heavy lift is not.
[Update a while later]
And…the empire strikes back. A piece defending SLS/BMR by Mike Griffin and Scott Pace, over at Space News. Will I have a response? You bet. Stay tuned.
[Update a while later]
Here is one point (though there are others) that I will really pound on:
The challenge for fuel depots is simply that the marginal specific cost of payload to orbit is generally lower for larger launch vehicles. There may be exceptions, but the trend is clear.
There are at least two avenues of attack. What mine will be is left as an exercise to the students. Oh, and initial link fixed. Sorry.
[Late evening update]
Clark Lindsey has started to rebut, and it’s a good start. But there are a lot more fish in that barrel…