Apr 012019
 

NASA chief says a Falcon Heavy rocket could fly humans to the Moon

The launch vehicle would require a number of modifications, including the use of the ULA Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage and a larger payload fairing.

The article seems lean on some details. The launch vehicle thus modified with the ICPS and an Orion capsule would seem perhaps capable of sending men *around* the moon, but actually landing on the moon would seem to require a lot more capability. The obvious approach would be to go back to the original idea NASA had in the earliest Apollo days of launching multiple Saturn I’s, with separate vehicles and tankers, for a rendezvous in Earth orbit and an assembly and tanking. But beyond all that  there remains one over-riding problem: where the frak is the lunar lander?

 Posted by at 3:43 pm