Re:NASA, Lockheed Martin Working to Resolve Artemis II Orion...
by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday April 03, 2024 @07:58PM
(#39924895)
> either 15 full stacks (Booster + Tanker) ready to go, or a few with full-reuse and very fast turnaround
SpaceX is on track to launching satellites on a Starship this year. Given Artemis II is now bumped to 2025, that gives SpaceX 2 to 3 years to go from first orbital launch and recovery to a launch every 4 days (2 months for 15 launches), their launch cadence for the Falcon family in 2023 [1]. It took about a decade for the Falcon 9 to do that cadence, but it was first in its class. It seems plausible SpaceX will be able to repeat the feat in 3 to 5 years, which puts Artemis III within window.
SpaceX is on track to launching satellites on a Starship this year. Given Artemis II is now bumped to 2025, that gives SpaceX 2 to 3 years to go from first orbital launch and recovery to a launch every 4 days (2 months for 15 launches), their launch cadence for the Falcon family in 2023 [1]. It took about a decade for the Falcon 9 to do that cadence, but it was first in its class. It seems plausible SpaceX will be able to repeat the feat in 3 to 5 years, which puts Artemis III within window.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_...