Splashdown NASA’s Orion Returns to Earth After Historic Moon Mission
It feels weird seeing boondoggles like the Senate Launch System actually deliver. On the one hand it’s exciting because we’re actually really possibly maybe finally going back to the moon. On the other hand, it is at the price of, minimum, $1,000,000,000/launch. A successful launch doesn’t actually change the reality that it was and still is largely politically viable only as a jobs/pork program.<p>I wonder if people felt this way about Apollo? In hindsight it feels worthwhile. But the big difference between Artemis and Apollo is that Artemis is coming after Commercial Crew/SpaceX has proven a different business/engineering model.<p>I’ve been waiting for this since I was in the fifth grade, so I should be happy. But then, I was promised a path to Mars with boots on the Moon two years ago.