[AR] Re: Falcon Heavy use cases
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2018 11:28:14 -0500 (EST)
On Wed, 7 Feb 2018, John Stoffel wrote:
And I'd figure that NASA or some else is going to want to be able to
launch a big probe to the outer system, or even just stuff to Mars on
the cheap.
Back when Asteroid Retrieval Mission was a going concern, the RFP for
secondary payloads on it specified that the launcher was Delta IV Heavy,
Falcon Heavy, or SLS. Read carefully, it was clear that FH was the
launcher they really wanted to use. Delta IV Heavy was really too small,
but had to be included because it was an existing launcher and FH wasn't,
yet. And SLS had to be included because they were politically required to
swear allegiance to it.
However, ARM is gone. It'll be a while before the next big planetary
mission gets serious enough to shop for a launch.
Henry
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