_Augustus_

Guys. Read what I just said in the revised OP. Berger lost all of his credibility a while ago. He just says whatever will get Ars clicks and all the SpaceX fans riled up. He's not reporting real facts anymore.

I'm just gonna let Keith speak for all of us here:

I predict that EUS will be permanently scrapped and we'll see the original Block IA come back. Eventually, maybe a J2X-based upper stage like the original Block II. NG S2 is planned to have some kind of on-orbit reusability eventually, so it might be able to act as its own tug. Actually, NG can just barely get Orion to the Gateway (people have done it in RO), and that's assuming the engines don't improve over time like Merlin and Glenn itself doesn't get bigger.

When BFR flies in a couple years, I'll be sure to remind you of this.

Not me.... LOPG is a useless pork project that's being made to give SLS/Orion a purpose. Seriously, if NASA wants to go to the moon they should just cancel LOPG and go straight to the lunar surface. And before you tell me LOPG permits a reusable lunar lander.... how does it do that? Without a propellant depot the lander can't refuel, and if the lander can ISRU it doesn't need LOPG.

If they could actually do it exactly 2 months from today, that'd be the best Christmas present ever.

B F R

Silvering chemicals arrive later this week - the only nearby coater who takes mirrors this huge has moved and won't be in operation for a while, so I have no other choice.

https://spacenews.com/china-to-launch-unmanned-test-flight-of-next-generation-crewed-spacecraft-in-2019/

Tested the 20" out tonight. Everything works great with one exception - the truss poles are several inches too long. Will fix that soon.

Mirror is in the cell.

Boeing needs to be investigated for... a lot of things. Between their failures on SLS, their failures on Starliner which they try to cover up, falsely claiming they alone build and own SLS, and the libel against SpaceX, I wouldn't be surprised if they've broken some laws at this point. Unfortunately, this is Boeing we're talking about, and the US government is super corrupt - were either of those not the case, we probably wouldn't have an SLS rocket to criticize.......

Block I has literally three payloads: EM-1 EM-2 Europa Clipper You can't comanifest DSG modules on Block I with Orion, which would mean they'd require their own propulsion, in which case why not fly them on commercial LVs? I guess CAESAR, if selected, could fly on Block I and arrive at 67P faster, but that might exceed the mission's budget. An ice giant mission or Cassini follow up could work, but that's not in development. BA-2100 doesn't exist.

At this rate, by the time SLS flies, there will be two new HLVs (Vulcan and New Glenn) capable of lifting Orion and DSG components to TLI. And that's if we ignore BFR.....

Second-biggest.