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Comment by adamm255 | Hacker News Reader

NASA Landed on the moon in the 60s with an abacus. SpaceX can’t get out of low Earth orbit.

I think it's a really responsible decision by SpaceX to not put their StarShip stage into a full orbit until they have demonstrated the ability to get it back out of orbit.

They should be applauded for this, along with their iterative approach.

Note that this next test will demonstrate re-light of the engine in space at micro-gravity. This is the demonstration needed prior to putting the StarShip in orbit. We'll probably see a full orbital test for the flight after this one.

They could have easily put previous tests into orbit - it's a fairly minor change to their existing regime and they have plenty of fuel to use.

Do you really believe that they “can’t” get out of low earth orbit, as opposed to “haven’t yet”??

Didn't SpaceX launch Europa Clipper to Jupiter a few weeks ago?

They also flung a Tesla Roadster off into a wayward journey around the Sun. Not nearly as impressive I know, but significantly more amusing.

Yup. Passed by Mars in Oct 2020 which is definitely outside low earth orbit.

Clipper is a massive payload for a planetary science mission as well. SLS was the only other operational US vehicle with the payload capacity.

The Clipper was planned to be launched on the SLS, but due to delays in the SLS program and its massive cost ($2+ billion per launch), it was decided to use the Falcon Heavy to launch it even though the Falcon Heavy is a bit smaller and it will take 5 years instead of 3 to get to Jupiter.

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