Ok, so call it a conspiracy theory if you want, but I think this rocket was sort of a scam right from the start. I think they came up with this plan to use old shuttle engines specifically because they never actually intended to build a new RS-25 themselves. With the assumption that their rocket would be so expensive that the project would be cancelled before they ever needed to actually make a new one.
So they could design a completely unsustainable rocket, and never actually have to worry about their long term plan. Because their goal was really never to build an awesome capable workhorse rocket, but instead just to rake in all the government funding they could.
At this point the RS-25 engines are all new right? They’ve finished using up all the old shuttle engines?
It still kills me that they pulled all those engines out of museums just so they could expend them in single launches.
Nope! The RS-25 engines for Artemis III all flew multiple shuttle missions.
Heh, well at least they have that.
Ok, so call it a conspiracy theory if you want, but I think this rocket was sort of a scam right from the start. I think they came up with this plan to use old shuttle engines specifically because they never actually intended to build a new RS-25 themselves. With the assumption that their rocket would be so expensive that the project would be cancelled before they ever needed to actually make a new one.
So they could design a completely unsustainable rocket, and never actually have to worry about their long term plan. Because their goal was really never to build an awesome capable workhorse rocket, but instead just to rake in all the government funding they could.