So, tl;Dr
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The Mars sample return has been shitcanned
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The lunar gateway orbiter (or was it a transitor?) has been shitcanned, or at least our funding for it has. There are other internation partners that we’re leaving on the hook here.
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Artemis and Orion got dumpstered past Artemis III in favor of “more competitive commercial launch systems”. I’ll give you one guess who that contract is going to go to, though that’s not part of this announcement.
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No mention of the Roman space telescope, but climate monitoring satellites got the boot too
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Human space exploration is prioritized in the new budget, with 6 billion to work towards establishing a lunar base and 1 billion for human mars exploration (lol, lmao even. Here’s a hundred dollars to go explore the Pacific, have fun, kiddo)
To be fair, the whole Artemis program was a bit of a dumpster fire. Needlessly complex architecture when we could have just yeeted like three or four pieces into space with Falcon Heavy, assembled in orbit, and then landed/returned with a traditional lunar landing vehicle.
So I’ve heard, but I think I heard recently that NASA had made a lot of headway getting to program on track, and it was supposed to have a heavier payload than even starship by a good margin. It’s basically a modern Saturn V program. Idk, I’m skeptical that it was dumpstered based on evidence and that this wasn’t just a handy premise for setting up more gibs for Elon.
Oh for sure, SLS is the heaviest lift rocket in the world by a large margin right now. It just can’t launch frequently or cheaply.
Cancelling it while Starship is still so flaky is a bad move IMO.
That’s what I was thinking as well. As flaky as private companies can be, we could well end up right back at no heavy lifters if Elon wakes up one day and just decides “eh, fuck it”
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TBF, there’s so many basics that we don’t get right that sometimes I wonder if we are ready for space exploration or if we have more work do at home first.
Our leadership does not understand vaccines. We can’t handle people of differing opinions than ourselves. It seems so primitive.
Here’s the thing with NASA, most of the bases are located in Republican states so they’re more willing to fight against budget cuts.
We’ll have to see if they have any actual backbone to fight against these fascists, but it’s more hopeful than other departments.
I’m hoping they can find their balls, because I like our space program. :/
