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Old 25-05-2024, 11:44 PM
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ChrisD (Chris)
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Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 285
Lets just look at reusability of Starship HLS.

Starship HLS does not have a heat shield, so it's definitely not coming back to Earth (in one piece) and there is no plans to refuel it in the lunar near-rectilinear halo orbit also they don't carry enough fuel to return to LEO so they will be disposed of in heliocentric orbit. So not reusable.

Also with 15+ tanker launches needed just to refuel the Starship to get to the moon for a single landing on the surface, will that be cheaper or more efficient than a single Saturn 5 launch needed for an Apollo mission?

As for privately funded, NASA have already paid $1.83 billion to SpaceX just to see 3 launch vehicle explode. I'm willing to bet that no Apollo era Saturn 5 engineer ever said that "Everything after clearing the tower was icing on the cake." as Kate Tice did. I guess for them failure is an option

Chris
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