NASA Stuck! NASA's $5.3B Gateway CAN'T Stack with SpaceX Starship HLS! Why???

NASA Stuck! NASA's $5.3B Gateway CAN'T Stack with SpaceX Starship HLS! Why???
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00:00: Intro
00:47: Lunar Gateway’s problems
07:34: Lunar Gateway and Starship HLS
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#greatspacex #elonmusk #spacex #nasa #starship
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NASA Stuck! NASA's $5.3B Gateway CAN'T Stack with SpaceX Starship HLS! Why???
Humanity is on the verge of returning to the Moon this decade, with Starship set to play a pivotal role in this historic mission. In tandem with Starship, NASA is developing additional systems to support this significant endeavor. However, not all of these systems are proving to be effective, with the Lunar Gateway standing out as a point of concern. The Lunar Gateway initiative is currently encountering several challenges, most notably its potential conflict with Starship HLS.
What are the specific issues with the Lunar Gateway, and should NASA reconsider this complex initiative? Let's explore these questions in today's episode of Great SpaceX.
NASA Stuck! NASA's $5.3B Gateway CAN'T Stack with SpaceX Starship HLS! Why???
According to NASA's current roadmap, Artemis 2 is scheduled for September next year, followed by Artemis 3 and 4 missions in September 2026 and September 2028, respectively, with both lunar landings being facilitated by SpaceX's Starship HLS. Among these, Artemis 3 is particularly significant as it will mark humanity's return to the Moon after more than half a century.
However, the subsequent missions, especially Artemis 4—the second mission to land humans on the Moon—also hold great promise, featuring several major advancements compared to Artemis 3.
In addition to Starship HLS, NASA has proposed the development of a system called the Lunar Gateway. This project envisions a space station operating in lunar orbit, serving as a staging point before the lunar lander transports astronauts to the Moon's surface. The Lunar Gateway is intended to support long-term, sustainable lunar exploration and may lay the groundwork for establishing permanent bases and extended operations on the Moon.
NASA Stuck! NASA's $5.3B Gateway CAN'T Stack with SpaceX Starship HLS! Why???
However, the situation is not as promising as it appears. The complexity and incompatibility of the Lunar Gateway with Starship HLS have raised significant concerns. A recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlighted several issues with NASA's plans, underscoring the challenges facing the Lunar Gateway project.
The first major issue with the Lunar Gateway is its schedule. Initially planned for 2022, the project has faced significant delays, with key modules like HALO, I-Hab, and other subsystems still in development. According to the GAO report, the first launch of the system has been pushed back to at least December 2027.
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To be resolved, thank you.

[privateerburrows]

Absolutely! There never was a cogent argument for the gateway. It was simply an artificial project to justify use of SLS, which in turn was simply an artificial rocket project concocted to justify transferring taxpayers' money to BOEING, which money transfer was simply to repay BOEING for greasing the hands of congressmen and senators. Government people cannot directly grab money from taxpayers and stuff it in their pockets; so companies like BOEING help them do it in a more subtle way. In fact, wasn't there recently a case where Congress decided to pay directly to BOEING for SLS without the money even passing through NASA? Those crooks don't even care about space exploration; all they want to see is BOEING getting money; nothing more, nothing less. Time to stamp out the whole web of corruption.

[ronc]

Is this the NASA that refuses to acknowledge they have 2 Astronauts stuck on the ISS some 60+ days after there were supposed have returned from an 8 day trip?

[icare]

EASY FIX 1+2= 3
1: Cancel All Boeing NASA Contracts
2: Litigate Boeing For Refunds
3: Fire NASA Director Bill Nelson

[suttoncoldfield]

Well, I'm glad someone understands how the mission is supposed to work

[Logoseum]

Why not build the Lunar Gateway modules out of Starships?

[marcusmcqueen]

There are, today, multiple space station mock ups that use a Starship core as a base. And they all launch on the same platform. And that's not counting the inflatable Habs. Why are we wasting billions of dollars on 70 year old concepts, just so we don't hurt the feelings of Blue origin and Boeing???

[davis.fourohfour]

The entire Artemis architecture is insane and should be cancelled.

[robb]

An extra starship would make an excellent gateway !

[guildpilotone]

How could NASA NOT anticipate the issue with the mass of HLS? Gross incompetence. Should NASA even be in the moon landing business at all?

[kellynatalytwine]

Forget about Orion and let Space X do the whole mission to the moon.... The Orion capsule is a lemon... 😮😮😮😅

[hex]

Way too complex. Too many contractors. Too many things have to go right.

[eudaenomic]

Maybe I'm crazy and don't understand how to spend NASA money, but it seems to me Starship HLS could take the astronauts with it. If any additional supplies are needed, another Starship. Or just have Elon have his team develop their own lunar gateway.

[mactek]

Okay, I guess people need a refresher in Newton's first law. "An object at rest remains at rest, or if in motion, remains in motion at a constant velocity unless acted on by a net external force." This means the HLS will be in the same identical orbit as the Gateway in order to dock and will stay in that same orbit until it undocks to travel to the Moon's south pole. The Gateway won't be able to course correct while the HLS is attached. If the Gateway needed to perform such a maneuver, the HLS can simply undock for the Gateway's course correction and then dock again.

[AtTheBarn]

Just because Nasa makes bad decisions does not mean that Space X needs to scale down to the same level of nonsense!. Space x should go full commercial and leave NASA behind on this particular mission. Nasa will not be ready until the 2030's anyway! Remember that Space x is going to Mars by the 2030's.

[jimhanson]

Artemus will fail. Too expensive. Too complicated in its hardware and mission for NASA to cope with.
Too politicized to be completed into something that makes any sense. Star Ship will carry it off with a new engine not requiring vast amounts of fuel.

[Orphican]

Lol, I have zero faith in Orion, SLS, or the gateway doing anything on time or under budget! SpaceX is probably going to have to build a "gateway" station themselves or just do without it and put a Starship/Tanker in that orbit instead.

[petenikolic]

Grossly over complicated just quit fannying around with it all Let SpaceX do the job Start to finish .

[billmullins]

Using a vehicle the size of Starship is INSANE! It's like using an ocean liner for a one-day fishing trip. IMS, Starship could accommodate dozens of crewmembers. You have to wonder what the bureaucrats at NASA were thinking when they selected the Starship HLS for Artemis.

[viewfroml]

The Gateway's sole purpose is to justify using the ORION spacecraft for Artemis. The ORION can not make it to Low Lunar Orbit to support manned missions to the moon but can just make it to the Gateway at its high point. NASA and Lockheed Martin have spent over a decade and billions (cost+) developing this deep space spacecraft that is too heavy and limited yet it has been baked into every deep space mission including Mars mission concepts. The fact that it can only be launched on a SLS rocket is just an extra bonus to the legacy space companies. As long as the Artemis program includes these three albatrosses (SLS, ORION, and Gateway), manned moon landings will be limited to short-term visits once a year at best. Imagine if those billions could be poured into lunar base infrastructure instead.

[SliceofLife]

The orbital gateway is completely unnecessary, at this point. At least one lunar colony of 100s of people would be required to logically require this kind of station. SLS is not required either, for reasons we all know well.