Re:NASA’s bet on Starship for the Moon
by skissane on Friday April 23, 2021 @04:40PM
(#26918968)
> The current official plan is for Starship to take astronauts from the Gateway to the surface of the moon and back.
Even before announcing the choice of Starship for HLS, NASA was already talking about bypassing Gateway for the first crewed lunar landing (Artemis III) and only visiting it on later missions – https://spacenews.com/nasa-takes-gateway-off-the-critical-pa...
They haven't completely decided yet though. They don't know when the bits will be ready. If come time for the first crewed landing, SLS+Orion and Starship are ready but Gateway isn't, they'll just do the landing without Gateway. On the other hand, if Gateway is already ready by then, they might consider using it. One advantage Gateway has, is it gives the two astronauts who stay-behind on Orion a bit more room. It would also give them something to do – testing out Gateway systems.
Even before announcing the choice of Starship for HLS, NASA was already talking about bypassing Gateway for the first crewed lunar landing (Artemis III) and only visiting it on later missions – https://spacenews.com/nasa-takes-gateway-off-the-critical-pa...
They haven't completely decided yet though. They don't know when the bits will be ready. If come time for the first crewed landing, SLS+Orion and Starship are ready but Gateway isn't, they'll just do the landing without Gateway. On the other hand, if Gateway is already ready by then, they might consider using it. One advantage Gateway has, is it gives the two astronauts who stay-behind on Orion a bit more room. It would also give them something to do – testing out Gateway systems.