3 ms·
Which projects? Would love to know.
by wertop 11y ago
Which projects? Would love to know.
- mikeash 11y agoMe too. I can't think of anything going on in space flight right now more significant than SpaceX's reusability efforts
- pocketstar 11y agoSpaceX's reusabulity efforts are just another incremental improvement to existing rocket technology. Reusable launch vehicles are nothing new. If they can get launch costs down to $60m with their reusable technology that would be great! However, they still can't launch anything >5000kg so it's a pretty mixed bag and a lot of good marketing.
- mikeash 11y agoReusable launch vehicles are nothing new? I can think of only one other, and it ended up being unbelievably expensive, costing far more than an equivalent expendable launcher. SpaceX's launch cost is already about $60 million in expendable mode, so your comment about bringing it "down to $60 with their reusable technology" makes no sense to me. If they pull it off, the cost might drop to more like $10-30 million. A rocket that costs like an expendable launcher but can be reused will be a massive game changer, not "just another incremental improvement." Maybe all the changes needed to get to that point are incremental, but that doesn't mean the result won't be huge.
- pocketstar 11y agoPick one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_...