Is it for efficiency or for purely aesthetics

Hi everyone! I don't understand this massive dislike and hate for SLS that I see all over the internet and of Reddit. I love SLS I think its a fantastic flying machine and glad to see Space Shuttle components and parts being repurposed for SLS. I do love the Space Shuttle and what it did and SLS is continuing the Legacy along with using existing NASA facilities which is awesome to see. And I am working on reenrolling to university for Aerospace Engineering to go for NASA's Artemis program to me its the next Apollo.

SLS is needed and right now what NASA has is brilliant, Artemis has a lot of moving parts now, Artemis 2, 3 and more are in various stages of development. Gateway is under development and testing, ML2 is under construction, LCC is under launch rehearsal, so much at play here for Artemis 2 and beyond.

Starship is a cool vehicle, too, but it's still too early for it to be fully operational, and Space X has a lot on its plate. Also, I think Starship works more with Cargo and uncrewed flights than crew. The whole backflip of it seems going to be tough for astronauts to follow.

Anyway, I hope this is okay to post here. I hope there are some workarounds and not straight-out cancellations because a person who seems to be in power is playing politics. I don't want to get into politics, but this is scaring me.

With the nomination of the new administrator Jared Isaacman, there has been a consensus online from both sides of the political aisle that SLS/Orion should be cancelled.

I vehemently disagree with that sentiment as it would throw away our best chance at going to the Moon in nearly 60 years. But, unfortunately, the cards have not fallen in the favour of the program as it stands now. The big question is, would it be immediately cut? Will A2 be allowed to go ahead and the rest of the SLS stages scrapped? Or will some compromise be reached that allows SLS and Orion to exist in some capacity?

Image credit: NASA/Adeline Morgan

With the delay last week and knowing that the second segment starts the clocks when do you think we'll see the boosters gain more segments? Start of next year?

Image credit: NASA/Glenn Benson

I have some ceramic models of the SLS and Orion spacecraft I’ve been wanting to show, but I haven’t found any subreddits for them. r/art, for instance, only allows one image.

Given the election results, I fear that SLS is gonna be on the chopping block. EUS I’d think is first to go, along with gateway. Any thoughts?

Block 2 with EUS and BOLE boosters is enough to meet the needs of manned or cargo lunar missions of the Artemis program or even manned missions to Mars (building MTV with Block 2 Cargo, transporting people to MTV with Block 2 Crew or even using Orions in Martian orbit to explore the moons/or meteorites around Mars, send large equipment to Mars, etc.)

So does this make Block 2 the last major version of the SLS? Maybe there will be Block 2 V2, Block 2 V3 etc but no Block 3?

All I could think of for a Block 3 is SMART reusability like the Vulcan Centaur will do, ie a small section at the bottom of the SLS core would detach along with the engines, and use an inflatable heat shield for re-entry and splashdown. Or BOLE+ boosters that will be able to provide enough thrust to the SLS so that they can be made reusable, meaning they don't need to be made expendable for extra thrust. So they can be reused in a direct or indirect way.

Maybe in the future partial reusability will make sense when a large launch rate is achieved