NASA's Human Spaceflight boss hits eject a week before SpaceX crew launch

Re: Going while the going's good

It had occured to me some time ago, that what NASA should have been building were both Earth and Moon orbiting space stations.

Then cheap flights (using re-usable boosters) up to the Earth station could take place. An Earth-Moon transiting "shuttle" could then do the 250m mile journey back and forth between them and at Moon Station, a lunar lander could be stationed that heads to the surface and comes back again.

One could then have a second Lunar lander as a rescue vehicle in case Lander #1 failed.

All of this would be a lot cheaper than building one very large SLS, the majority of which is "lost" after launch...and hence this is a very costly exercise that only benefits the builder of the craft (as they will get repeat orders).

Getting stuff into space is expensive if it is large (and hecne needs heavy lift rockets)...but once it is IN space, it is re-useable and cost-effective.

Re: Going while the going's good

The Redstone rocket already existed, it was for ballistic missiles. The Saturn V on the other hand had to be created from scratch.

Of course, almost every POTUS since Ronnie has instructed NASA to go back to the moon/on to mars/build a shuttle replacement. And then failed to provide the same crazy percentage of GDP to do it with.

It's possible that even the moon landings might have been cancelled, if that wouldn't have looked like p*ssing on the sainted JFK's grave.

Re: Going while the going's good

"It's my understanding that the re-usability of 1st stage rockets doesn't DIRECTLY apply to manned missions except that the manned mission booster can be re-used afterwards for an un-manned launch. But yeah THAT level of re-usability makes it cost less overall since the entire booster cost isn't eaten up by that one launch."

My understanding is that SpaceX are intending many launches of each first stage. Since the number of manned launches is going to be a small fraction of total launches, making sure a brand new virgin stage one is ready for a manned flight isn't likely to be a chore so the reality is that manned launches are directly cheaper thanks to the re-use in the same way that any first launch of a new stage one is. Unless there is some significant extra expense in building to man-launch ratings compared to unmanned launches, which I don't think there is on the first stage.

You're spot on with the "Unix-like" system though. We need bigger, better and more importantly, newer hardware in orbit. With the newer bigger launch vehicles coming online we should be looking at something with the legroom of Skylab, not the ISS. (I wonder if the ISS crews watch old film of the guys in Skylab flying around in all that space and get jealous?)

Re: On the negative throught

I doubt it, his reasoning for leaving is causing too many questions. If it was being caught with his pants down then the usual reason for leaving is to spend time with the family.

My guess is whistle blowing.

Expect him to pop up with one of the private agencies in the next couple of weeks.

Re: I wonder

"But Baikonur is still an option... "

Maybe that's it. Maybe he authorised the booking of another seat from the Russians despite the planed SpaceX launch as a contingency and someone higher up the food chain, maybe right at the very top, is upset at that so he's jumped before being pushed. The apex predator has history of sacking people who upset him.