Will NASA Moon Rocket Get Canceled In Favor Of Musk Mars Project?
Will NASA Moon Rocket Get Canceled In Favor Of Musk Mars Project? . (MENAFN - Asia Times) 

Since Donald Trump's recent electoral victory, rumors and speculation have circulated that NASA's giant Moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), could be under threat. The ...
América - MenaFN
(MENAFN- Asia Times) Since Donald Trump's recent electoral victory, rumors and speculation have circulated that NASA's giant Moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), could be under threat. The rocket is one of several key components in the US space agency's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972.

For the first lunar landing mission , called Artemis III, the SLS will launch four astronauts on NASA's Orion crew capsule. Orion will then to the Moon. Once in lunar orbit, Orion will dock with Elon Musk's Starship vehicle (launched separately). Two astronauts will float into Starship, which undocks from Orion and travels down to the lunar surface.

After walking on the Moon, the two astronauts return to lunar orbit in Starship, which docks with Orion. The two moonwalkers rejoin their crewmates and go home on Orion, leaving Starship in orbit around the Moon.

The US space journalist Eric Berger recently posted on X:“To be clear we are far from anything being settled, but based on what I'm hearing it seems at least 50-50 that NASA's Space Launch System rocket will be cancelled.”

No official announcements have been made. However, such a move could be in line with previous speculation that the Trump administration could gut NASA, forcing it to contract out much of its work to the private companies.

But could another rocket easily take the place of the SLS? This question goes to the heart of what America wants to achieve amid an emerging 21st-century space race. China has pledged to send its astronauts to the lunar surface by 2030 . Unlike the US, China is usually conservative in its estimates, so we can assume deadline slippage is unlikely. Some in the space community believe that if China were to get to the Moon first this century, it would deal a significant blow to US ambitions in space.

Meanwhile, several elements of Artemis are holding up the US schedule. One of these delayed elements is Musk's Starship, which acts as the lander on Artemis III. It still needs to demonstrate key milestones including refueling in space and performing a landing on the Moon without crew.
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https://menafn.com/1108948852/Will-NASA-Moon-Rocket-Get-Canceled-In-Favor-Of-Musk-Mars-Project
2024-12-02
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(MENAFN - Asia Times) 

Since Donald Trump's recent electoral victory, rumors and speculation have circulated that NASA's giant Moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), could be under threat. The ...
Will NASA Moon Rocket Get Canceled In Favor Of Musk Mars Project?