White House budget proposal would phase out SLS and Orion, scale back ISS operations
White House budget proposal would phase out SLS and Orion, scale back ISS operations
White House budget proposal would phase out SLS and Orion, scale back ISS operations
White House budget proposal would phase out SLS and Orion, scale back ISS operations
10 Comments
Why spend on something when you could just pocket?
I don’t like this administration any more than anyone else. But, that said, I understand the cuts to SLS and Orion.
Look at the SLS vs the Falcon Heavy for example. SLS carries 70,000 kg to LEO, compared to 63,800 on the Falcon Heavy if you fully expend it. Okay, an edge for SLS. Except. SLS costs $2.5 billion per launch, while an expendable Falcon Heavy launch is just $100 million. That’s 25 Falcon Heavies for each SLS. Uh oh.
Add to that, the Falcon Heavy is a tested technology. It’s had 11 launches, SLS has only had one. It also has cheaper reusable or partially reusable configurations.
I understand why we don’t want SpaceX to have a rocket launch monopoly, but still there has to come a point when we acknowledge that even though the goals were noble, a strategy has failed. And I think SLS is at that point.
So he’s going to turn NASA into MUSKA. That should give nobody a good feeling.
SLS garbage. The only reason it exists is because of greedy leaders who come from states that benefit from the production.
It’s inarguably a terrible and expensive system that displays no innovation
They are wasteful bloated programs. Giving grants to startup space programs like they have been doing creates competition and innovation. I would be fine with ending the ISS as soon as we can get everyone off. Let’s go to mars.
Everyone knocking SLS like SLS didn’t work first time.
Sure. “Yadda yadda Starship”. How many flights need to rendezvous in orbit successfully without hitch to fuel *just one* HLS mission? Last I checked it was up to 14 or so. That’s just not a credible mission architecture.
So it’s finally happened. The end of SLS and Gateway is now the official position of this Administration. Not a big surprise at this point. The surprise is Orion being cancelled also. It’s clear the President has gone all-in on Starship being able to do everything Musk believes it can. “Commercial providers” to take over Artemis and accomplish a human mission to Mars is written as a plural but clearly there’s only one provider, SpaceX, that can take over Artemis if Orion is cancelled . Ditto for carrying out a crewed Mars program. Even the Mars Sample Return is shifted to the SpaceX crewed missions.
It looks very much like Trump has bought into Musk’s belief that Starship will proceed without any hiccups and be ready not only for HLS but also to go to and from the Moon. If that’s so there probably won’t be any half-measures like refilling HLS in lunar orbit to return the crew to LEO. IMHO Musk wants to launch and land the astronauts in a regular Starship. (HLS retains its role.) The return from the Moon would be at lunar return velocity and use aerobraking – very similar to how a Mars mission will have to. There are other ways to do the Orion leg of Artemis with Starship* but I believe Elon wants to use the mission architecture he’s believed in for years.
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-*Alternate option 1: Use HLS as a cislunar shuttle, boarding the crew from Dragon. Return from the Moon is predicated on refilling from a tanker in lunar orbit in order to have enough propellant to decelerate propulsively to LEO.. Musk might brush aside the danger of such a critical single-failure point in the mission architecture. Any failure to take on enough propellant will doom the crew. NASA would fight such a thing.
-*Alternate option 2: Use a second ship for the Orion leg, one with TPS and flaps. Such a ship should be able to go LEO-lunar orbit-LEO with no refilling in lunar orbit if only the crew and a light cargo is carried – and still decelerate propulsively to LEO. Or at least decelerate to a lower reentry speed. Dragon for a LEO taxi is what I’ve expected for this option but now I believe Elon will push for the crew to launch and land on Starship. Jared is willing to launch and land on Starship himself so any NASA pushback on this will be reduced.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|CST|(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules|
| |Central Standard Time (UTC-6)|
|[ESM](/r/Space/comments/1kd9aqm/stub/mq9xj2w “Last usage”)|European Service Module, component of the Orion capsule|
|[FAA](/r/Space/comments/1kd9aqm/stub/mqa0cca “Last usage”)|Federal Aviation Administration|
|[HLS](/r/Space/comments/1kd9aqm/stub/mqaktcr “Last usage”)|[Human Landing System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System) (Artemis)|
|[ICPS](/r/Space/comments/1kd9aqm/stub/mq9xj2w “Last usage”)|Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage|
|[LAS](/r/Space/comments/1kd9aqm/stub/mq9xj2w “Last usage”)|Launch Abort System|
|[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1kd9aqm/stub/mqaktcr “Last usage”)|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
| |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
|[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1kd9aqm/stub/mqaktcr “Last usage”)|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
|[TLI](/r/Space/comments/1kd9aqm/stub/mq9gx89 “Last usage”)|Trans-Lunar Injection maneuver|
|[TPS](/r/Space/comments/1kd9aqm/stub/mq9wb6x “Last usage”)|Thermal Protection System for a spacecraft (on the Falcon 9 first stage, the engine “Dance floor”)|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[Starliner](/r/Space/comments/1kd9aqm/stub/mqaktcr “Last usage”)|Boeing commercial crew capsule [CST-100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CST-100_Starliner)|
|[cislunar](/r/Space/comments/1kd9aqm/stub/mq9wb6x “Last usage”)|Between the Earth and Moon; within the Moon’s orbit|
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—————-
^([Thread #11311 for this sub, first seen 2nd May 2025, 23:17])
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Landsat Next is not getting the coverage next to expected death of SLS/Orion/Gateway/ISS/Sample Return etc.
However its at least as important given the practical reliance on earth observation. Adapting to the climate change that the WH doesn’t want to admit requires even better data – and a descoped Landsat won’t provide it. Most will have expected the end of SLS/Orion/Gateway – but its the surprise slashing through programs thought safe that will reverberate.
Isn’t the ISS almost at its service life? It would be cool to see funding for a new space station though.