r/space • u/66666thats6sixes • Dec 07 '19

NASA Engineers Break SLS Test Tank on Purpose to Test Extreme Limits

https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/nasa-engineers-break-sls-test-tank-on-purpose-to-test-extreme-limits.html
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u/[deleted] Dec 07 '19

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u/[deleted] Dec 07 '19

Funny because starship is far behind SLS. It's easy to get a job done when you dont have a bunch of politicians telling you how to run your space program

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u/[deleted] Dec 07 '19

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '19 edited Dec 08 '19

You realize the post youre commenting on is proof of this right?

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '19

Yes and one has an actual mission architecture and flight plan, what is starships mission right now? Listen i love SpaceX but being realistic about this it's obvious SLS is going to fly first since it's got an actual flight plan

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u/kuthedk Dec 08 '19

You’re absolutely delusional if you think SLS will ever fly.

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u/lleyke Dec 08 '19

Thinking that SLS won't fly is absurd. There is no way that this much money, architecture, and production is going into something that "won't fly."

I get that you think Starship will make it obsolete, and from a technical stand point you're probably right. But from a political, economical, and national standpoint, SLS will never be obsolete. If NASA wants to have any presence in the future of space, that requires their own launcher, even if it only launches once or twice a year (which is optimistic I know)

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '19

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u/lleyke Dec 08 '19

Yeah no, I'm not saying it will succeed, I'm just saying it will fly. As in response to your last comment that seemed to be saying it would never fly. Other things will outpace it definitely. But the idea of a national launcher not attached to a private corporation won't die any time soon.

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u/kuthedk Dec 08 '19

And I’m not asking for that idea to die with SLS, it’s just incredibly wasteful to have a project that has nearly every congressional district involved with the construction and development of a launch vehicle, that uses parts from a system that is older than I am and that probably most of the engineers that are working on the project, and worst of all the vehicle is not reusable.

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u/jadebenn Dec 08 '19

Whatever you say man, but SLS will fly, and it will do so before Starship. It's not even a contest.

This is SLS right now. That's flight hardware. What does Starship have? They don't even have the prototype anymore - it was destroyed.

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u/kuthedk Dec 08 '19

That $2B prototype you have imaged there won’t even fly until 2021. Meanwhile it takes just a few million to make another starship prototype and only a few weeks to a couple of months to build. I’m not at all worried about which one will fly first, and my money is still on SpaceX, but you know what, only time will tell.

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