NOT Seeing This on the News

 This Seems Relatively (!) Important

In all the coverage of the upcoming NASA SLS slingshot around the moon coverage, it seems to me that direct comparisons between our two moon-bound rockets are missing. Maybe I'm just not watching the right media?

I'm a big fan of both NASA and SpaceX, and they have different objectives in our return to Luna. Still, comparisons are enlightening.  This occurred to me watching the SLS creep toward the launchpad on the same huge, tracked crawler that moved the Saturn stacks. Space X is a whole new generation, including how it gets to its launchpad. 

And Starship is a LOT bigger!


Want to drag race?


BIG DIFFS ALL AROUND like how they get to their launchpads.

NASA SLS

Transport MethodUses the Crawler-Transporter 2 (CT-2), a massive tracked vehicle (world's largest self-propelled) that carries the entire stacked rocket on a Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP). The crawler has laser guidance for leveling and precision docking.


SpaceX Starship

Stages transported separately and horizontally using Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs) or specialized trailers/road vehicles from build sites to the Orbital Launch Pad (OLP). For inter-site moves (e.g., Texas to Florida in 2026), barges ship stages horizontally. At the pad, the "Mechazilla" tower uses chopstick arms to lift and stack vertically.


FORGIVE THE AI (ChatGPT did the graphic -- it's not quite right, but hey...; Gemini did the comparison text.)

p.s

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