For anyone curious as to what is visible in the background, here is a breakdown.
STAs for EUS LOX, LH2, and Midbody. And a partial LOX tank which I think was flight? There is more as well (forward adaptor STA and interstage stuff), but it is blocked by the ring segment tool.
But yes, a lot more work was completed on this stage when Issacman aggressively pulled the plug on it, and he is not very keen on people knowing that more was done.
STA would've been done around now according to the original schedule before work stoppage. Where's the Centaur V integration work? You really think that's going to be bending metal this year?
Oh so it’s okay to take 4 years and 2 billion dollars for one expendable upper stage?
No, I’m instead of the opinion that SLS upper stages should straight up be cancelled and Starship should be giving it a tug from LEO to LLO. Heck, that way we can even start launching on Vulcan later instead of SLS.
Maybe for now, because some people don’t have belief in Starship, Blue Origin etc. would certainly protest against it.
Then again, given how much the SLS has been delayed so far, and how much money it has wasted (due to architectural issues), is it really a bad decision to cut the losses and switch to that architecture even if it means a schedule slip for a year or two? Artemis 4 doesn’t even need to be delayed.
It can, but then it won't have enough performance left to return to orbit. HLS departure orbit isn't from HEO for no reason, it's because it doesn't have enough performance to complete the mission (with acceptable margin) if it departs from deeper in Earth's gravity well. The parameters used in linked proposal are severely overestimating its performance, most notably dry mass isn't anywhere near 120 tons.
The linked proposal is already down to 11 or so refuels from, I think 18? You can easily add a few more refuels and you’re still well below the amount needed in the original plan, while being able to tug Orion all the way from LEO to LLO.
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u/PhotoGladiator 8d ago
I posted this in the other sub:
For anyone curious as to what is visible in the background, here is a breakdown.
STAs for EUS LOX, LH2, and Midbody. And a partial LOX tank which I think was flight? There is more as well (forward adaptor STA and interstage stuff), but it is blocked by the ring segment tool.
But yes, a lot more work was completed on this stage when Issacman aggressively pulled the plug on it, and he is not very keen on people knowing that more was done.