Yeahhh it's supposed to be a LEO rendezvous to test vehicle interactions between Orion and a half assed Starship and Blue Moon.
The Starship will be a regular one with a docking port up front and no pressure vessel. They won't have to refuel.
The Blue Moon is supposed to have a pressure vessel for the crew to enter. It also won't have to deal with refueling.
At this point, the Starship might be more realistic for next year than Blue Moon.
Another side benefit is SLS not needing a 2nd stage to put Orion in LEO, so they can save the 3rd and final ICPS for A4 while working on the upgraded Centaur V for A5+.
2 Comments
xenomor@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 35d
Artemis III is the boring one that they slotted in because SpaceX isn’t meeting any of their delivery timelines, right?
burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 35d
Yeahhh it's supposed to be a LEO rendezvous to test vehicle interactions between Orion and a half assed Starship and Blue Moon.
The Starship will be a regular one with a docking port up front and no pressure vessel. They won't have to refuel.
The Blue Moon is supposed to have a pressure vessel for the crew to enter. It also won't have to deal with refueling.
At this point, the Starship might be more realistic for next year than Blue Moon.
Another side benefit is SLS not needing a 2nd stage to put Orion in LEO, so they can save the 3rd and final ICPS for A4 while working on the upgraded Centaur V for A5+.