SLS vs. Starship

Re:SLS vs. Starship by TeMPOraL on Friday November 13, 2020 @03:41PM (#25087216)

The key word here is likely rapid. Doing a suborbital hop is much faster than going through atmosphere, because you get to accelerate to much higher velocities. Even supersonic planes take forever to get anywhere, while a suborbital hop would let you get to any place on the planet in under 2 hours.

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Re:SLS vs. Starship by khuey on Friday November 13, 2020 @03:51PM (#25087325)

There never was a space shuttle sitting around ready to launch on-demand though. A 2 hour travel time is irrelevant if it takes weeks to prep for the mission.

The space shuttle could also only land at a handful of runways on the planet.

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Re:SLS vs. Starship by Already__Taken on Friday November 13, 2020 @03:55PM (#25087365)

And everyone on the planet would know you're doing it via national television or every inter-continental ballistic warning system?

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Re:SLS vs. Starship by dnautics on Friday November 13, 2020 @07:29PM (#25089169)

I don't agree with the use case but to play devil's advocate, not every actor would be able to do something about it.

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