Space Exploration

Are NASA's future missions and budget justified?

  • It's worth the time and expenditures

    Votes: 221 66.0%

  • Complete waste of money

    Votes: 41 12.2%

  • We need to explore, but not at the current cost

    Votes: 73 21.8%
  • Total voters
    335
#4,880
#4,880
CagleMtnVol said:
Click to expand...

The height of government stupidly is that they are going to ground Starship and intentionally delay America’s space program (to the benefit of China) because SpaceX made a big dust cloud that dropped a thin layer of sand on top of some turtles that LIVE in burrows in the sand. 😬
It’s not like the same thing doesn’t happen in South Texas every time there is a natural wind storm 🙄
Can you imagine the Chinese or Russians halting rocket development over an imagined impact to wildlife in a tiny area next to their launch complexes? Me neither
 
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#4,893
#4,893
SLS might be more powerful; but Falcon Heavy is still by far the coolest operational rocket out there. Never boring to watch and an absolute engineering marvel. And an order of magnitude more economical
 
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#4,895
#4,895
SpaceX working rapidly to repair damage to launch facilities in Boca Chica. Looks like they plan to test again as soon as possible (or as soon as the Government allows them)
 
#4,897
#4,897
Boca Chica launch site looks as busy as a knocked over ant hill this morning. Cranes, lifts, and construction equipment everywhere and workers crawling all over everything. Elon is kicking things into an even higher gear
 
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#4,899
#4,899
OrangeTsar said:
First one ever to be fully expended. Sort of made me sad. Then I realized every other rocket by every company other than SpaceX is fully expended and I felt better. That was a MASSIVE payload to Geostationary orbit
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If memory serves, when they were looking at a lunar flyby mission with Dragon they were going to use a Falcon Heavy in expendable format. Problem was the human rating on the Heavy, though I suspect it would just be a formality.
 
#4,900
#4,900
Grand Vol said:
If memory serves, when they were looking at a lunar flyby mission with Dragon they were going to use a Falcon Heavy in expendable format. Problem was the human rating on the Heavy, though I suspect it would just be a formality.
Click to expand...
Also, Dragon is not designed to leave earth orbit and is definitely not designed for the 25000 mph re-entry from lunar return (as opposed to the 17,500 mph from earth orbit). Not that SpaceX couldn’t modify it but the tests and certifications required would be very expensive and time consuming
 
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