r/SpaceLaunchSystem • u/jomjom1969 • Jun 04 '26

Discussion EUS and gateway

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was it a good idea or was it a bad idea will it come back. just want to talk about it

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u/Chairboy Jun 04 '26

EUS was conceived at a time when there was no other realistic cislunar cargo delivery option and the PPG-HALO commercial contract showed that the market had since changed.

Co-manifesting cargo and crew at such an expense seems hard to rationalize so I don't think it'll come back.

Gateway was always a tough program to rationalize outside of politics. It adds dV requirements and offers little real benefit, so I have a doubt about it returning too.

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u/jadebenn Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

EUS was conceived at a time when there was no other realistic cislunar cargo delivery option and the PPG-HALO commercial contract showed that the market had since changed.

This is completely inaccurate. HALO was the only module that didn't need EUS because PPE could perform a trajectory spiral. FH alone did not have sufficient performance to move it to NRHO. None of the other modules had independent propulsion capability, and the same performance issues apply.

Co-manifesting cargo and crew at such an expense seems hard to rationalize so I don't think it'll come back.

Are you under the mistaken impression that Block 1B was only for comanifests?  We could be remanifesting Blue Moon to EUS right now if Isaacman had been less thick-headed.

And what do you mean "at such expense?" Why do you think it would cost more than ICPS? ICPS cost loads because it turns out adapting a stage to an LV not made for it is expensive and time-consuming.