But One Rocket Has Flown, The Other May Be Years Away

SpaceX reached a significant milestone in February when it successfully launched the Falcon Heavy rocket and recovered two of its three boosters ... but Boeing apparently was not particularly impressed.

Ars Technica reports that on a website built by Boeing called "Watch US Fly", the aerospace giant says the Falcon Heavy is "too small" to be effective in NASA's deep space exploration program. Boeing says then it is operational, the SLS will be "the mors powerful rocket ever built."

The Boeing site cites a comparison by NASA's Bill Gerstenmaier, who did a side-by-side comparison of the SLS and BFR (Big Falcon Rocket) at a NASA Advisory Council meeting in March. Gerstenmaier said that the SLS would have some "unique capabilities" that the BFR does not have, but could not articulate why NASA needed the larger rocket because the agency has not yet built anything that would require those capabilities.

Still, Falcon Heavy has flown. SLS will likely not launch until at least the mid 2020s and will cost several billion dollars. The SpaceX rocket will cost considerably less.

(Image from file)

FMI: Original report