Rim Mountains Of The South Pole-Aitken Basin On The Moon

Ah yes, an Apollo CSM can hold five people

Well actually it wasn't just about funding. Kathy Lueders basically made the decision to contract SpaceX by herself in 2021. The fact that there was a governmental leadership-change ongoing at the time might have enabled her to sneak this through: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/option-a-source-selection-statement-final.pdf

In 2023, she quit NASA and went to work for SpaceX as a general manager of the Starship Programme in Texas.

Bare in mind that SpaceX had not yet provided a capsule mockup and their lander design was inherently less safe and more ambitious than the alternatives. It also depends upon a highly experimental super heavy-lift launch-system using several wholly new technologies and flight profiles.

But now that it's crucial for NASA's Artemis Programme, NASA is basically required to be involved in Starship development and to continue providing funds. Musk's companies are already quite well known for tricking the government and the customer out of their money.

It's genuinely possible that Starship HLS might not be ready before Blue Moon MK 2 is.

The first West Coast SpaceX launch captured by photographer Dylan Schwartz.

Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan's view from and of the Gemini-9A spacecraft during his extravehicular activity (EVA). Taken during the 32nd revolution of the 72-hour, 21-minute spaceflight.

"'What a beautiful spacecraft,' said Gemini IX pilot Eugene Cernan during his two hour, eight minute spacewalk. He took this wide-angle photograph looking back at the window where command pilot Tom Stafford was watching."

"Northwestern Mexico as seen from the Gemini-9A spacecraft during its 32nd revolution of Earth. The large penisula is Baja California. The body of water at lower right is the Pacific Ocean. The land mass at upper left is the State of Sonora. The Gulf of California separates Sonora from the peninsula."

Date: June 5, 1966

NASA ID: S66-38032, S66-38044, S66-38046, S66-38047, S66-38048, link, S66-37989, S66-38048, S66-38049, S66-38050, S66-38051, S66-38055, S66-38068, S66-38070

Part 2! 🤩 BepiColombo’s last close-ups of Earth during flyby

A sequence of images taken by one of the MCAM selfie cameras on board of the European-Japanese Mercury mission BepiColombo as the spacecraft zoomed past the planet during its first and only Earth flyby on 10 April 2020.

► Learn more about BepiColombo: https://www.fromspacewithlove.com/bepicolombo/

📸 Copyright ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

i've had them for 2 days but i would do anything for them