3 ms·

Going back to where you came from cost far more fuel. Every kilogram of fuel you save is extra profit. Also some places you are not allowed to land with a rock

• adwn 11y ago
  No, the cost of the fuel is almost entirely irrelevant; the entire fuel for the rocket launch is less than 1% of the total cost. The motivation behind saving fuel by landing on a barge is that the fuel thus saved can be transformed into additional speed of the upper stage, enabling a larger payload.
  • nickik 11y ago
    Literally what I said 'Every kilogram of fuel you save is extra profit.'. They make profit by sending payload into space.
    • adwn 11y ago
      > "Every kilogram of fuel you save is extra profit." No, it's not: Additional performance (i.e., payload capacity) does not get them more money from a customer if that customer's payload doesn't require more performance. If you want to be pedantic you might argue that more performance allows for more customers, but then not "every kilogram" is extra profit, because the spectrum is not continuous.
• Piskvorrr 11y ago
  "Every kilogram of fuel you save is extra profit" - which is sort of correct, in a roundabout way, via the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsiolkovsky_rocket_equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsiolkovsky_rocket_equation : more fuel -> more weight -> need for even more fuel -> even more weight, which is the actual limiting factor in getting to LEO. So, a better way to put it would be "every excess gram severely decreases your range. Oh, and everything counts, fuel included."