NASA Spacecraft Sent to Unexplored Orbit for Moon Outpost Goes Silent

NASA came up with this thing because they needed a station that they would need SLS to get to, and that SLS actually could get to. It has no value as a place to be, but only a place to use up SLSes at US$2B+ each.

The ISS served this role for the space shuttle. ISS had no purpose except as a place the shuttle could get to, and the shuttle had no use beyond flying people to ISS. (X-37B is similarly useless, left parked in orbit for months or years at a time.)

A lunar "gateway" to stop at is stupid because to stop there, you have to spend the fuel to stop there, and then spend more fuel to start off again to where you really meant to go. The only sensible gateway is low Earth orbit, because you don't need to expend any fuel to stop there, and any fuel you spend getting away is fuel you would have needed to spend anyway.

The claim that it is needed, or even useful, as a communications relay is an obvious falsehood. A commsat does not need a crew. Mars has an orbital communications relay, and no station.

SpaceX Starship is awkward for NASA because it can do everything expected of SLS for way, way less than $2B. NASA can't abandon SLS because Congress has made clear that NASA itself has no purpose except to launch SLSes.