Is Boeing's/ NASA Artemis rocket ever going to leave the ground?
In development now for....10 years...at a cost of 'zillions'...to create a rocket to go the moon? Which we already did with a way better rocket (Saturn V) multiple times Apollo 11-17 (1969-72), and the thing won't even be scheduled to be ready till 2024! This, when we already have Space-X Falcon Heavy and Dragon 2 capsule to do the same thing and with 'reusable' rockets. What gives? Is NASA now just a bureaucratic nest of pocket/ career stuffers.
quantumclaustrophobe2021-03-29T05:29:33Z
The Saturn V was built by several companies - and, Boeing was responsible for the first stage.
The unfortunate thing is, NASA isn’t in charge. Neither is Boeing. It’s Congress. They have started then stopped several programs in the last 20 years, supplying millions for development, only to pull the rug out from under NASA a half dozen times. One big reason for the long development period for Artemis is the lack urgency that we had when we went to the moon... 4 cents of every dollar spent by the US in the 1960’s were devoted to sending us to the moon; today, that number is much less, with the result being progress is much slower. Apollo *got* us to the moon - but it wasn’t to stay... I’m hoping Artemis keeps us going with a permanent presence there.
Hope not. Just a huge waste of time and money. Nobody cares about the dam Moon and nobody cares about Mars. People who want to show off need to use their own money. Deadbeats.
What you say is true Nothing will ever come of Horizontal take off and Landing ( HOTOL ), Boing as a name gives it away They should stick to what they are good at, making Airplanes It is like Ford making a car that can go into Space under its own Power For to get into space requires Earth's Escape Velocity 17, 500 mph The Saturn 5 Rocket required one Million Pounds of thrust to lift all the Stages and their fuel off the Launchpad and to Orbital Altitude Now imagine Putting it on its Side and trying that It would have to fight Gravity as it goes along, even with wings attached It would never make it That is why Vertical Launches are the more efficient as with even the Shuttle The Saturn 5 was the most successful Rocket ever made Get some people still think you can build a ladder to the Moon !!
It got stuck in a rock formation. In order to free it, you will have to detonate the rock, which will destroy the rocket. So this is your classic Catch-22.