FTR_1077 t1_isrj68m wrote on October 18, 2022 at 4:12 AM

Reply to comment by seanflyon in NASA outlines case for making sole-source SLS award to Boeing-Northrop joint venture by jeffsmith202

>Falcon Heavy will be human rated if their is a customer to pay for it.

Elon said that will never happen, SpaceX is betting on starship.

>SLS is years away from being ready to carry humans.

SLS is ready to carry humans right now, of course it needs to be tested first. But it is already human rated.

>Falcon Heavy could easily be ready to carry humans before SLS is ready to carry humans.

Again, Elon said that will never happen.. and regardless, it doesn't have enough power (remember the 80% mention before).

seanflyon t1_isrnrgu wrote on October 18, 2022 at 5:01 AM

> Elon said that will never happen

Do you have a source for that? Specifically that they would not do it for a paying customer? From what I recall they have said the opposite. You may have heard a statement that they don't think they will ever have a customer want to pay to human rate FH when Starship is better and cheaper.

> SLS is ready to carry humans right now

Either it is ready or it is not. It needs to be tested first and will not be ready to carry humans for a few years assuming everything goes according to plan. It would be ridiculously dangerous to put humans on an untested rocket, not to mention the capsule on top does not yet have a full life support system and the Artemis 1 launch will not have a working launch escape system.

Apprehensive_Note248 t1_issetky wrote on October 18, 2022 at 11:10 AM

I don't know how one can say it's ready for humans now, but needs testing first with a straight face. That is literally not being ready.

SLS apologists...

MaltenesePhysics t1_isrl8jf wrote on October 18, 2022 at 4:33 AM

FH will never be human rated, but I don’t consider SLS human rated. The ECLSS is disabled/missing for Artemis 1, something absolutely critical for Human Spaceflight. It’s ludicrous that there’s no ECLSS on mission 1 to shake out issues, but that’s another story. It’s like they’re begging for something to fail on A2, when they could’ve just tested on A1.

Hussar_Regimeny t1_isrnaql wrote on October 18, 2022 at 4:56 AM

> ECLSS

I should point out that the ECLSS has been tested extenstively on the ground already. Sending up with A1 will give little to no new data. The only way to stress test an ECLSS is to have humans aboard. Plus parts of it at the very least have been tested onboard the ISS

Plus it's not uncommon to not place the ECLSS on flights. DM-1 didn't have one and then DM-2 flew with humans and with the ECLSS for the first time. So this isn't the ludicrous action you think it is.

MaltenesePhysics t1_isth0j0 wrote on October 18, 2022 at 4:09 PM

That’s not true. DM-1 had its ECLSS installed and enabled. They ran into some issues with it during flight, even with no crew aboard. You can’t find unexpected issues with a system without having the system installed. It doesn’t make sense for them to not take the opportunity to test the entire system in deep space.