Going Back to the Moon Could be Economically Affordable.

A successful SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch gives NASA new options

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket will launch for the first time next week. It might be the company's most anticipated mission yet, and it could open up a new line of business - one that might interest NASA. The new rocket will be the most powerful in the world, which means it could launch heavier and more complex cargo to space.

From article, (The SLS has strong support from key members of Congress, so NASA will likely continue to develop it. But once the Falcon Heavy starts flying regularly, the cheap, powerful rocket may be hard for NASA to ignore. “This could make the whole Trump administration initiative to go back to the Moon economically affordable,” Charles Miller, president of space consulting firm NexGen Space LLC and a former member of the Trump administration’s NASA transition team, tells The Verge.

SpaceX is known for its budget pricing. One flight of the company’s Falcon 9 starts at just $62 million. That’s a fraction of the cost ULA’s comparable Atlas V rocket, flights of which start at $109 million. And the Falcon Heavy will be cheap, too, starting at around $90 million each flight. SpaceX has also worked to bring down rocket costs even more by designing them to be partially reusable. SpaceX has figured out how to land its first stage boosters back on Earth, in order to fly them again, saving on manufacturing. The Falcon Heavy will be no different. All three of the rocket’s cores will attempt to land on Earth after each flight; the outer cores will head to land while the center core will land on a SpaceX drone ship in the ocean.

NASA is expected to do big things, but with flat budgets for the next five years, according toSpace News. And the agency is going to need more than just a transport system. It’s going to need landers, habitats, and more to keep people alive on the Moon. There are even plans to build a new space station around the Moon called the Deep Space Gateway, where astronauts can live and train for missions. There’s no extra cash for these projects, and NASA needs to free up money somehow to make all this happen. The administration may want to do that by ending funding for the International Space Station, but using cheaper rockets could also do the trick.

 NASA already relies on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 to send cargo to the International Space Station, and soon the company will be sending astronauts there, too. NASA could use the Falcon Heavy in similar ways. Using the Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 together, NASA could go back to the Moon for just $10 billion over a five- to seven-year period, according to a report from Miller of NexGen Space. (NASA’s yearly budget is $19 billion.) “Having affordable commercial heavy-lift is the only thing keeping NASA from going back to the Moon and on to Mars,” says Miller. “NASA has been trying this for over a decade, but it’s been unaffordable. If you can get a heavy lift launch vehicle for under $100 million it changes everything.”

Of course, the government decides whether NASA can use the Falcon Heavy. And there’s always the possibility that next week’s launch goes wrong. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has expressed concern that the vehicle won’t make it to orbit on its first launch. If that happens, SpaceX will need to fly the Falcon Heavy a few more times until it’s deemed ready for commercial flight.

But if it does fly well, SpaceX will send a powerful message to the spaceflight world — and NASA may like what it sees.)

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