Everyone wants to be on the surface."

…Isaacman also confirmed that NASA will no longer build a Lunar Gateway in orbit around the Moon, but would rather focus all of its energy and resources on the lunar surface…

…One of Isaacman’s fundamental beliefs is that NASA does not have a revenue problem. Rather, it has an expense problem.

“For too long we tried to satisfy every stakeholder, and the results of that are very well documented in Office of the Inspector General reports,” he said. “Billions of dollars wasted. Years lost. Hardware that never launched. Fewer flagship science missions. And fewer astronauts in space, which means fewer kids dressing up as astronauts for Halloween…

…the lunar base would be established through three phases…The first of these, running through 2028, is estimated to comprise 21 landings, putting a total of 4 metric tons of payload on the Moon…

  • Delta_V@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    4·
    1 day ago

    Its about time! There’s nothing a permanent space station orbiting the moon can do, that a fleet of rotating Starship-class vehicles can’t do better.

    Forcing lunar landers to rendezvous with the station before attempting a landing just wastes fuel.

    Forcing a cargo ship to rendezvous with the station also wastes fuel - if a lander needs to top off its tanks before attempting a landing, why not dock it directly to the cargo ship? And then return that cargo ship to Earth to be refilled and reused again and again as a temporary supply depot.

    Hopefully they’ll fully cancel the Senate Lunch System program soon too!

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      12·
      1 day ago

      that a fleet of rotating Starship-class vehicles can’t do better.

      Has Starship done…anything yet? They’ve launched like a quintillion of them and none have achieved anything. In the 60’s NASA launched two unmanned test Saturn Vs and then Apollo 8.