17 thoughts on “SLS Flight Rate”

1. but there’s nothing they can do about it, except to cancel the stupid program.

   Oh sure they can. They can paint the damn thing yellow and go for a new 1T dollar Inflation Miniaturization Act, with specific carve outs for school buses and other yellow vehicles.

   1. Paint the letters SLSII on the side of Starship. Problem solved.

2. You mean planning on a flight every two years (so they might actually achieve a launch every 4) isn’t enough?

3. You begin to see why the feds are pushing so hard against Elon. Once starship starts flying those who have backed SLS will be revealed to be idiots, on the take or, more probably, both.

   I just bought Zubrin’s book and haven’t read it but anyone want to guess how long it will be before Musk buys an atoll in the Pacific, declares it an independent nation, and starts flying people into space to do whatever the please. Instead of having to obey some treaty that no one on Earth has the power to enforce.

   That’s how I read Heinlein.

   1. Make a deal with Ecuador for one of the lesser Galapagos islands…. Almost right on the equator, good weather, close to the US.

      And if the US wants to launch via Space-X, they better not give him any ITAR static.

      1. For example – Isla Genovese is mostly all volcanic with a dry lakebed at the summit, on the equator (0.32N), a huge natural harbor (Great Darwin Bay)….

         1. Bonus points for the volcano, which is where everyone thinks Elon hides out anyway!

         2. Dry lakebed at the summit? Or fully retractable metal doors? After all YOLT….

            1. Insert maniacal laugh track

            2. After all YODT….

               FTFY.

      2. Yeah, I seem to recall that Beal Aerospace considered doing just that, including finding a flat rock that rose no more than 1m above sea level.
         Once folks heard there was money sniffing around, well, that’s when the trouble started. All of a sudden people noticed some birds were nesting on one side of the island…

   2. A US company cannot launch from any country without FAA say-so. See: Rocketlab

      1. It’d be a Swiss Company SpaceXXAG.

4. I think NASA is just way ahead of the curve on building multi-generation ships. SLS mission XII will be crewed by the grandchildren of the SLS mission II’s crew, whose children will crew SLS mission VI. It’s a very well thought out program, as opposed to the chaos of SpaceX missions where Elon just shoves random people into a capsule and blasts them into space every week.

   1. A space program that leaves no child behind…

   2. NASA’s B52

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