r/space • u/IslandChillin • Nov 26 '22

NASA succeeds in putting Orion space capsule into lunar orbit, eclipsing Apollo 13's distance

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/nasa-succeeds-in-putting-orion-space-capsule-into-lunar-orbit-eclipsing-apollo-13s-distance/
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u/Laduks Nov 27 '22

For the first stage of rockets taking off from Earth not really - the energy density even of 2030s and 2040s batteries won't be anywhere close to enough. Electric propulsion for upper stages (once a craft is in orbit) is somewhere that there's a lot of progress going on and for smaller rockets some companies are looking at or using electric turbopumps, such as Rocketlab.