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from the bang...zoom...straight...to-the-moon dept.
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
NASA chief says a Falcon Heavy rocket could fly humans to the Moon
[...] Until now, it was thought that only NASA's Space Launch System could directly inject the Orion spacecraft into a lunar orbit, which made it the preferred option for getting astronauts to the Moon for any potential landing by 2024. However, [NASA Administrator Jim] Bridenstine said there was another option: a Falcon Heavy rocket with an Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage built by United Launch Alliance.
[...] This plan has the ability to put humans on the Moon by 2024, Bridenstine said. He then emphasized—twice—that NASA's chief of human spaceflight, William Gerstenmaier, has yet to bless this approach due to a number of technical details. His reservations include the challenge of integrating the Falcon Heavy rocket in a horizontal position and then loading Orion with fuel in a vertical configuration on the launchpad. The Falcon Heavy would also require a larger payload fairing than it normally flies with. This would place uncertain stress on the rocket's side-mounted boosters.
"It would require time [and] cost, and there is risk involved," Bridenstine said. "But guess what—if we're going to land boots on the Moon in 2024, we have time, and we have the ability to accept some risk and make some modifications. All of that is on the table. There is nothing sacred here that is off the table. And that is a potential capability that could help us land boots on the Moon in 2024."
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 02 2019, @04:28PM
Pork is known as the other white meat. Especially in a disasterous advertisement that would not have played well in Northern Iraq / Kurds, but I digress.
In 1987, Newsweek had an issue, with the cover being Lost In Space. The issue was about how the US Space Program had lost its way. The Shuttle was still grounded. The space program is a huge mess. The issue goes on about various plans to reinvigorate the US Space Program and stop flying in circles around the Earth.
Someone suggests, how about bring back the Saturn V program? Boeing's answer: we could NEVER do that! That could take ten years! People are gone, some no longer alive. Some of the plans may no longer exist. Etc.
As Newsweek pointed out: Original Development Time: 3 years.
(Now that 3 year figure is from my old and not always reliable memory, although I was able to point out my source of recollection quite handily enough for anyone to independently verify.)
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.