NASA just declared "No Lunar Starship Landing"! Is SpaceX in big trouble?

grave NASA has recently announced a substantial alteration to its lunar exploration agenda no lunar Starship landing and this has raised concerns for the future of spacex's ambitious endeavors is SpaceX in trouble stay tuned as we dive into this problem and More in today's episode of alpha Tech the South Pole of the moon is a stunning Place towering mountains are bathed In Perpetual sunshine and the lunar dust finest powder gleams in unfiltered light plunging craters exist in permanent shadows and hide pockets of ice in their gray rock the water Frozen and undisturbed for as long as three billion years here somewhere along this silent terrain NASA wants to land a new crew of astronauts like those who came before these visitors will suit up and go for a walk their bodies bouncing in the low gravity but that lunar straw isn't happening anytime soon and could be delayed even longer speaking at an August 8th briefing at the Kennedy Space Center Jim free NASA's associate minister of our exploration system development said the Artemis 3 mission still has a formal launch date of December 2025 but that he was monitoring potential delays and hardware needed for said mission Mr free didn't discuss the specific triggers that could initiate changes to Artemis 3. back in June they'd also Express concerns about the somewhat delayed debut of Starship and worries about the operational aspects of the lunar lander the tankers to be employed for in-orbit fueling the successful lunar Landing of Starship and the transfer of cryogenic propellant to orbit however they also have contingency plans for every possible scenario if their delays with Starship they'll have equivalent missions prepared as potential Replacements particularly the essence of Artemis 3 could be influenced by the outcomes and progress of Artemis 2. indeed spacex's version of Starship under the contract with NASA is responsible for lunar orbit and transferring astronauts from the Orion spacecraft to the lunar surface and back to carry out this process NASA has to ensure the success of their expensive SLS rocket and the proper functioning of the Orion capsule however at the moment the progress of the Artemis 2 mission is also not very promising the Orion capsule hasn't been fully finalized yet and investigations into its heat shield could possibly delay the lunar Journey furthermore the Assembly of SLS has also been delayed due to unspecified issues with its downcomers this tells us that the project doesn't appear to be ready for NASA's Artemis 2 launch schedule if even Artemis 2 isn't on that correct timeline then whether the Orion spacecraft and the SLS rocket will be ready in time for Artemis 3 remains uncertain as for SpaceX they also have a lot to do before they can meet the requirements of the Artemis 3 mission they need to launch free said they need to launch multiple times not just for us but for them and they need to launch multiple times for us so we really want them to find the success in their launches including the next one next comes the execution of a ship to ship transfer from what's essentially a fuel Depot spacecraft to Starship and then performing a successful uncrewed landing on the moon with Starship before NASA lets humans on board NASA is also concerned that the launch of Starship could impact the development of Axiom spacesuit this is because only upon starship's completion can they proceed to design suitable spacesuits for the astronauts any potential delays in either the spacesuits or the Starship could possibly lead to a reordering of missions there's a lot to do but with a leading Aerospace company like SpaceX this is certainly going to get handled the first orbital launch of Starship didn't seem too good but it actually served as a significant stepping stone for the development of SpaceX they showed NASA the future projects involving the most challenging technologies that Starship will execute beyond space during the reception of NASA groups at the recent Star base furthermore SpaceX has even provided an updated schedule to NASA which they were asking for details about however free still noted I think we'll look at that and update it as soon as we have some time to digest it shows us that NASA's skepticism still lingers towards spacex's Starship but whether that's the truth or just a pretext to mask their delays as various Mission components interconnect NASA's issues could also contribute to slowing the return to Moon progress issues stemming from funding for SLS the instability of both SLS and the Orion capsule will likely form a significant part of their potential delays in fact from what SpaceX has done and is doing we can clearly see the effort and determination they're putting forth to achieve their goals the issues with Starship mentioned above are not significant problems for SpaceX besides achieving Progressive milestones in preparation for the upcoming second Starship launch which included successfully developing a massive water Deluge system creating a more robust launch pad and making modifications to the rocket to address challenges from the initial launch the latest Discovery includes an image of the nose cone 22 labeled hls with a human-sized door on the left side we observe the emergence of a life support system typically an indispensable component in human carrying spacecraft special thanks to Starship gazer and lab Padre for providing these new images while SpaceX hasn't officially confirmed this info we can still observe the remarkable parallel development potential of SpaceX it won't be long until that second launch if Starship can perform its launch this year the likelihood of a successful hls Mission by 2024 is very high perhaps even by mid-year instead of the end of the year as NASA suggested both the Biden Administration and Congress also need to support endorse this project which could further enhance the development process of the Starship the Starship has the potential to unveil a future so promising that it was once considered unimaginal science fiction not too long ago it would be very regrettable if we continue to allow delays to hinder that promising future the role of the moonbound Starship becomes even more crucial as it serves as the determining factor in the success or failure of the race to the moon between the U.S and China while not everyone agrees that such a race is happening the use of this terminology by U.S politicians including current NASA administrator Bill Nelson and its ubiquity and Global media coverage suggests that many will view efforts to land humans on the moon this way if China lands humans on the moon before the U.S they could potentially assert immediately this is ours stay out much like they did with the South China Sea at that point people around the world might perceive this as proof of China's position as a global leader and the capabilities of their communist government China's Ambitions are indeed substantial while the United States is actively rallying Nations to join the Artemis Accords an agreement that promotes peaceful and collaborative international space exploration China stands as an exception among the 28 Nations that have endorsed these Accords this underscores China's Independence stance indicating its aim to dominate the moon for their own interests furthermore the moon holds as a valuable resource in the form of Trapped water ice particularly in the lunar South Pole this is why the competition for lunar exploration is fiercer than ever before unlike the well-lit landing sites of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin photographs of the South Pole reveal numerous deep craters perpetually cast in Shadows due to the angle of the sun most of these volcanic craters remain shrouded in darkness for extended periods inside these shadowed craters lie layers of hidden ice holding significant promise as a crucial resource for both Rocket Fuel production and essential drinking water Nelson also dramatically underscores the importance of the international community's interests in this Pursuit if indeed we find water in abundance that could be utilized for future Crews and spacecraft we want to make sure that it's available to all not just the ones claiming it and that's all for today's episode we hope you enjoyed it and learned something new please let us know what you think in the comment section below your feedback is very important to us and helps us make better videos for you thank you so much for watching and see you next time

Channel: ALPHA TECH

Views: 150,865

Keywords: Spacex, alpha tech, starship, spacex starship, starship spacex, NASA just declared No Lunar Starship Landing! Is SpaceX in big trouble?, elon musk, spacex today, space x, labpadre, spacex live, star ship, spacex boca chica, space x starship, starships, spacex news, nasa, lunar starship, starship news, spacex trouble, starship news today, elon musk news, nasa vs spacex, nasaspaceflight

Id: fFDlkileXgI

Length: 8min 37sec (517 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 15 2023