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To add a little perspective: The falcon heavy has a LEO payload of 63 800kg, the Saturn 5, a launcher designed and built in the 1960ies, has a LEO payload of 14
by Xylakant 9y ago
To add a little perspective: The falcon heavy has a LEO payload of 63 800kg, the Saturn 5, a launcher designed and built in the 1960ies, has a LEO payload of 140000kg, more than twice as much.
There’s certainly a lot of cool tech developed at Space X and landing and reusing the boosters is a thing not achieved in the 60ies, but it’s always good to keep in mind that in terms of lift capacity, today’s heaviest launcher is less than half as powerful than a launcher half a decade out of service.
- kore 9y agoWorth pointing out however that the Saturn V cost roughly $1.2B per launch, compared to $90M for the Falcon Heavy. So it was roughly 6x more expensive per kg to LEO. Not to mention it required a nation state to fund its roughly $40-80B development cost. Can only guess, but would expect the development costs of the Falcon 1/9/Heavy were maybe $3-5B? That said, Space X has benefited from all of the R&D done in the past. They weren't building it in a vacuum.
- chasingthewind 9y agoYou said it first and better :)
- lionpixel 9y agoIn the press conference after the Falcon Heavy start a journalist asked the question of how much the investment was. Elon answered “around half a billion [silent for 1s] propably more.”
- kore 9y agoCorrect, but that was just the cost to develop the core booster of the Falcon Heavy. That doesn't include the original costs to develop the Falcon 9 and all of its subsequent variants, nor the cost to develop the original Falcon 1.
- chasingthewind 9y agoAs a counterpoint, the falcon heavy costs something like 1/10th of a Saturn V launch. So you can launch two and dock the payloads in orbit for 1/5 the cost. Source: Kerbal Space Program
- VVyattPrentice 9y agoKSP FTW!!!
- slfnflctd 9y agoI'm not sure what your point is? 1. No privately funded rocket venture has ever gotten nearly this far 2. Reusable boosters are a Big. Deal. 3. The BFR will have a higher LEO payload and is likely to begin testing next year 4. Payload size is a poor metric by itself, launch costs are an extremely relevant part of the equation I could go on, but what I'm saying is that even with "a little perspective", SpaceX has achieved something hugely unprecedented, astonishing and inspiring. The prior existence of the Saturn V adds some context, but it doesn't even begin to address the question of why no other 'rich dude' has tried to put together a team to do something similar at this level, which I think is a fascinating one worthy of discussion.