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Did they originally intend to use a bigger rocket? It seems unlike them to throw one away at any price.
by Ericson2314 8y ago
Did they originally intend to use a bigger rocket? It seems unlike them to throw one away at any price.
- baq 8y agoThis rocket was worth billions in opportunity dollars. I’m sure not a single tear was shed.
- Ericson2314 8y agoHmm? Is the government paying billions for the launch? I doubt it.
- gsnedders 8y agoSpaceX will happily sell you a single-use Falcon 9 (or Falcon Heavy) if you need the mass for your launch. Of course, one should expect to pay for the privilege.
- Ericson2314 8y agoYeah I'm curious at what price. My guess is it massively contradicts their own PR on expected number of runs and thus their opportunity cost.
- gsnedders 8y agoI expect price-wise they're much closer to the competition there, but given they're still getting launches they can't be completely uncompetitive. That said, remember they could potentially be using a rocket that's flown twice before (and AFAIK three launches is the most they've done so far), and as such may view the rocket as largely expendable anyway (they lose the ability to use it for re-entry experiments and to pull it down after the launch, but nothing else).
- elihu 8y agoPerhaps they used one of their earlier rockets that are only designed to be reused a couple of times.