died 1967, born 2027, welcome back Agena Target Vehicle
Artemis 3 thoughts:
Overall in the expected range with some dissapointments.
- Blue Origin is expected to fly a demo Mk1.5 lander with a habitat that the astronauts will enter.
- SpaceX will fly a modified V3 (not HLS) that they will dock with but not enter.
- Pressure Vessel for Starship HLS is already built
This is my main point of confusion. How is it that Blue Origin will have a functional and enterable cabin to their new lander that didn't even ecist as a drawing a few months ago, yet SpaceX's Starship which was contracted first, is currently flying, and has a pressure vessel built, will not? I can only understand this as not willing to, or they believe pulling up an HLS vehicle would risk delaying Artemis IV. This is likely since HLS demo landing is early 2028 and Artemis 3 is likely late 2027. Either way I'm not happy about that. Not the end of the world though.
What makes this worse is we are far past the point of the public needing to see some damn thing about the Starship HLS lander. The bar is on the floor here just show a picture of the pressure vessel that is built for crying out loud, not even a new render? They've had an interior built out for years the public hasn't been show. That is inexcusable, mainly from a public funding standpoint but hell even from a company that is about to IPO like show your moon lander?? Most prestigious contract win in ~50 years, 6 years in and you can't give a damn enough to have a picture at a media event? What is going on? Inexcusable.
Blue Origin rendered there new lander tho so thank you!
This was the time that the public needed some kind of confidence boost from Starship HLS and that opportunity was more than missed, it was avoided like the plague.