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The USA has lost the industrial base that made Apollo possible. The industrial base that didn't exist in the USSR and why they couldn't ever get the N1 to fly. In comparison, the USA created 5 different spacecraft, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo Command, Apollo, & the Lunar Module and launched them in less than 8 years. All carried people into space successfully, then on to the Moon, and back alive to be able to talk about it.
We are left now with vague promises from the likes of Elon Musk who can't even paint cars properly in his car factory. The USA lacks the ability to launch anyone into space. We are back to 1961.
It's really a shame. At one time we had the ability to simultaneously build outfit and launch 4 Saturn V rockets that could be launched within a few days of each other. It remains the largest rocket ever built and the only one that has carried a human payload out of low earth orbit.
We're not spending the money. No bucks, no Buck Rogers. And NASA has almost completely lost its way since the Shuttle program - its lift vehicle development is first and foremost designed to keep the Shuttle supply chain happy. The SLS will cost a cool billion per launch, when it eventually gets around to flying. BUT - it's built in all the right districts.
Other than that, I'd say the industrial base is humming along really nicely. SpaceX puts more flights in orbit than any other nation. Blue Origin is building BE-4 engines - that's the first new hydrolox design since the 60s. We're seeing not one but two new manned platforms about to come online. SpaceX is building methane-powered engines. It's a new ball game.
And I'd hesitate to call SpaceX's performance "vague promises". A few years back, sure - but their record now is fairly impeccable. No wonder Boeing and Lockheed Martin have been trying to lobby them out of existence.
We're not spending the money. No bucks, no Buck Rogers. And NASA has almost completely lost its way since the Shuttle program - its lift vehicle development is first and foremost designed to keep the Shuttle supply chain happy. The SLS will cost a cool billion per launch, when it eventually gets around to flying. BUT - it's built in all the right districts.
Other than that, I'd say the industrial base is humming along really nicely. SpaceX puts more flights in orbit than any other nation. Blue Origin is building BE-4 engines - that's the first new hydrolox design since the 60s. We're seeing not one but two new manned platforms about to come online. SpaceX is building methane-powered engines. It's a new ball game.
And I'd hesitate to call SpaceX's performance "vague promises". A few years back, sure - but their record now is fairly impeccable. No wonder Boeing and Lockheed Martin have been trying to lobby them out of existence.
There's a SpaceX launch going up in an hour:
SpaceX is targeting this evening, February 21 for launch of the Nusantara Satu satellite from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The 32-minute launch window opens tonight at 8:45 p.m. EST, or 1:45 UTC on February 22. Falcon 9 will also deliver the Beresheet lunar spacecraft and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) S5 spacecraft to orbit. Deployments will occur at approximately 33 and 44 minutes after liftoff.
One launch, 3 spacecraft!
You can watch it live at spacex.com, starting 15 minutes before the launch.
SpaceX is targeting this evening, February 21 for launch of the Nusantara Satu satellite from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The 32-minute launch window opens tonight at 8:45 p.m. EST, or 1:45 UTC on February 22. Falcon 9 will also deliver the Beresheet lunar spacecraft and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) S5 spacecraft to orbit. Deployments will occur at approximately 33 and 44 minutes after liftoff.
One launch, 3 spacecraft!
You can watch it live at spacex.com, starting 15 minutes before the launch.
A lunar lander, how apt. They're going to go kaboom just to undermine my argument, aren't they?
The USA has lost the industrial base that made Apollo possible. The industrial base that didn't exist in the USSR and why they couldn't ever get the N1 to fly. In comparison, the USA created 5 different spacecraft, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo Command, Apollo, & the Lunar Module and launched them in less than 8 years. All carried people into space successfully, then on to the Moon, and back alive to be able to talk about it.
We are left now with vague promises from the likes of Elon Musk who can't even paint cars properly in his car factory. The USA lacks the ability to launch anyone into space. We are back to 1961.
It's really a shame. At one time we had the ability to simultaneously build outfit and launch 4 Saturn V rockets that could be launched within a few days of each other. It remains the largest rocket ever built and the only one that has carried a human payload out of low earth orbit.
It doesn't have anything to do with the industrial base; everything that went into a spacecraft was a specialized item, often so specialized that there were fewer than a half dozen copies made. It was about science and engineering - we had vastly superior technology, and still do. If you knew anything about the space program, you'd know that from a technological standpoint, our space program is lights years ahead of where it was in the 60s, and we could go back to the moon in a few years if we decided to pay the fare.
The Russians didn't fail because they lacked an industrial base - they failed because their science and technology sucked. The N-1 didn't fail because they didn't have the industry to build a better rocket; it was because they didn't know how to design a better rocket.
Truth is, in a lot of ways we weren't as far ahead of them as we like to think. We came very close on a number of occasions to not making it to the moon. Gemini 8 came within seconds of losing the mission and the crew; Armstrong literally pulled off a last-second miracle to save that crew. Apollo 8 was a foolish risk to take, 13 was about as close as you can come to losing a mission without actually losing the mission, and several other Apollo shots came close to mission failure or even loss of crew at one point or another.
But let's look at it this way... you say the problem is that we don't have the "industrial base" anymore... can you explain what specific areas of American industry have decayed to the point where we can't sustain a space program along the lines of Apollo?
Last edited by Mr. In-Between; 02-21-2019 at 09:11 PM..
Ah, no kaboom. And they nailed the landing. That's the third flight for that particular F9 booster. Desgined and built right here in Los Angeles - flown three times now, and landed on a rassum frassum robotic barge. Anyone complaining about lack of industrial base and vague promises can meditate on that.
We are left now with vague promises from the likes of Elon Musk who can't even paint cars properly in his car factory. The USA lacks the ability to launch anyone into space.
We are left now with vague promises from the likes of Elon Musk who can't even paint cars properly in his car factory. The USA lacks the ability to launch anyone into space. We are back to 1961.
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