u/Cmdr-Mallard

Was thinking about this today, after ISS, what readily available medium-Heavy lift launchers will there be for these commercial space station ideas?

Falcons faring size seems limited for this role and they want to retire it, and starship would need to be in service let alone a payload door version.

New Glenn perhaps but it needs to prove its payload capacity and reliability.

So perhaps Vulcan will have a niche for launching single module or multiple space station modules for commercial organisations?

I know they’re still contracted with Starliner, but with how well that’s going, I wonder what chances we’ll see it fly again, certainly not in its 551 or any such form! Rest in peace to a workhorse. Here hoping Vulcan can carry the legacy.

With the Cancellation of EUS and BOLE, SLS is going to remain a launch vehicle solely for Orion, and which is viable with all the other heavy and super heavy rockets in the works these days.

However as I understand BOLE was essential for SLS launches beyond a certain point as remaining shuttle boosters were used up, will SLS be cancelled by that point (and perhaps the whole moon program) or Orion moved to another launcher.

Or will a future administrator restart the booster program at the least to ensure SLS can continue to launch Orion?

Just wanted to put it out there cause I haven’t see much discussion, and while I know the major issues such as rectifying the SRBs and ensure no issues with BE 4, I do wonder that the longer it takes the less life Vulcan will have.

So are they reconsidering how long they will keep flying Vulcan or how long ULA will survive at all? As it stands the only customers it seems to have left are LEO and National security and once new Glenn gets actually going it’ll be taking a lot of that LEO work.

So what’s the future for Vulcan and ULA, will they be able to fill a niche other rockets can or is a race to the bottom?

So im trying to dig my teeth into what changes have been made to the SLS program, to be honest i wasnt that familiar with it before Block 1B and 2 were cancelled.

As i understand there is 1 more ICPS stage remaining which has now been shifted to Artemis 4, and then moving to Centaur V from Artemis V onwards, is this the plan going forward till an eventual SLS replacement or another interim stage?