The SLS with all the reused Space Shuttle & Apollo tech is bad enough. But when you look at the cost to the taxpayer. Just the tower is 2.7 Billion.
Is has become clear that the subcontractors on this project are wasting our tax money.
SLS was obsolete on the drawing board.
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SLS requires Starship and the Lunar Gateway to get enough mass to the moon to make Artemis work. Starship can do the whole thing by itself. All things being equal, Artemis makes no sense.
But all things aren’t equal. SLS costs $4 billion per launch — just for the disposable rocket. SpaceX hopes to drive Starship costs down to $10 million per launch — or less — for a fully (and rapidly) reusable rocket.
Starship requires several launches to bring a full load of cargo to the moon because the second stage requires orbital refueling from more than one tanker. But SLS still costs 40 or 50 times what Starship would — while still requiring Starship to complete Artemis and to get Lunar Gateway built.
Whatever becomes of Artemis specifically or the lunar program generally, there’s zero case for SLS.
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