Thanks for the clarification, that may be it then.

I was not sure with my prior post, hence my emphasis on 'think' in my post. I was 'thinking' (there's that word again) that I had read last year sometime going into the Artemis I mission that the Interim Cryogenic stage was just that: interim for one mission, but I must have either read that wrong or remembered it wrong.

But if the SpaceX Starship folks don't get something in orbit soon, at least to test and show that they can at least get it into space, this whole timeline may really start to slip.

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
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TRA# 962
SAM# 73
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Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

I don't think SpaceX has much to worry about just yet. NASA doesn't even plan to do their Apollo 8 reboot until late 2024. Starship won't have to be ready to land for at least another year after that.

Speaking of Starship, it is now stacked on the pad and could launch within a week or so IF the FAA will ever complete their environmental impact study.

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Well, actually, I was thinking about which craft — with astronauts — will ‘get’ to the moon first. Not landing…just returning humans to the vicinity of the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 left lunar orbit in 1972.

Within those parameters, I think it may still be close as to which does it first: the Artemis II crew or the SapceX ‘private’ lunar mission. And though it appears that Starship may soon fly to orbit, that is still a pretty good ways away from flying a crew of what, eight people is it (?) on that private lunar mission. Having Starship man-rated with enough confidence to send a crew that size around the moon and back by late 2024 (the current schedule for Artemis II) just seems a bit ambitious, considering the delays Starship has experienced the past few years.

It would be neat to see Starship with a huge crew like that whip around the moon and back in the next 10-15 months or so and beat Artemis II, and maybe it will. But it just seems to be asking a great deal from a program that, so far, has not yet even put an unmanned craft into Earth orbit as of yet.

Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

I don't even think any of the Starships have been built with a pressurized cabin yet. At least it hasn't been talked about in anything I've read other than the Mars version's volume is supposed to be near what the ISS currently has.

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