NASA’s Space Launch System is yesterday’s rocket
It is powered by yesterday’s technology and brought about by yesterday’s thinking
On december 14th 1972 Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, took a last look around the Taurus-Littrow valley, climbed his lunar module’s ladder and blasted off for home. His were the final footprints so far pressed into the Moon’s surface. Indeed, no human being since then has ventured more than a few hundred kilometres from Earth.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “A flying turkey”
From the August 27th 2022 edition
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