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Agree that the criticism is overall well-founded, but this one is a bit strange:

> SLS looks like someone started building a Space Shuttle and ran out of legos for the orbiter

Should the booster look different just for the sake of looking different?

I think the argument is that it should look different for the sake of doing better. By, say, using modern tools and techniques rather than trying to resurrect some old parts designed in the 1970s. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle#Design_process

I think the point they're trying to make is that it looks the same for the sake of looking the same.

I was just trying to describe SLS visually. If you've seen a lot of Shuttle stuff then the initial resemblance is very striking.

The initial resemblance really just comes down to 2 fairly pragmatic design decisions. We’ll use 2 side solid propellant boosters and we won’t redesign them from scratch because they work. And, we’ll use the same foam insulation on the rocket that we used on the STS liquid propellant tank because it also works…furthermore, we won’t try to paint over the orange insulation because we know that that doesn’t work very well.

Part of the reason is that there are plenty of reused and refurbished shuttle parts included!

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