DAL59

Flight 9 on 4/20, the 2 year anniversary of the first flight?

There are credible rumors that B14 will be reused for IFT-9!

They should go through with SLS 2 for Artemis II, use SLS 3 for Project Lyra, scrap the rest.

Could an SLS 1B do a cramped Mars flyby? Send Orion on a free return trajectory alongside a habitat module as its co-manifested payload?

Presumably they'll do an Apollo 8 style test in 2027/28

I think both SLS and Starship are unnecessary- rather than relying on super heavy lift launch vehicles, we should rely on the other spaceflight advancement we've seen in recent year- extremely frequent launch cadence + reliable automated docking. In the 2000s, there was an analyse that said a Delta IV based EOR moon architecture could put a crew on the moon every 6 months; this was optimistic then, but with FH, NG, and Vulcan Centaur in operation, Earth Orbit Rendezvous really could let us do a crewed mission twice a year.

WT F this is the dumbest concept I've ever seen and made me lose all remaining respect for Boeing. How could any aerospace engineer endorse this? Three SLS launches (two of which must be within a month of each other) for 1 day of human proximity to Mars and a few grams returned from the surface. Note that physics wise, for the Mars Ascent Vehicle with the samples to intercept the Orion on a flyby trajectory, it would need to put itself on the same course as the Orion- so the Orion serves no purpose. I guess it means the sample capsule no longer needs a parachute or heatshield and those two systems can no longer fail... but the ones on Orion can! Its risking astronaut lives for literally no reason!

Has any Tanker hardware been spotted yet? If they're doing any R&D testing they are being very tight lipped about it.

Docking and prop transfer demo will use Starship V3- so definitely won't meet the Q1 2025 goal, and probably not this year either. However, HLS will remain V2 derived, so if the refueling flights use V3, fewer launcher will be needed to refuel the smaller V2.

Supposed development of an Iranian reusable launch vehicle, look familiar...

NASA is looking into having Artemis II and the HLS Demo happen at the same time, to practice proximity operations.

How much does it cost to run the forum per month? Could we crowdfun it?

Even in KSP I'm lucky to get within 0.1 m/s

Is launch in 11 minutes? Odd choice to not have a countdown onscreen.