4 ms·

SpaceX is using first stages that have already flown - that someone else already paid full price for. Kerosine, lox, fairings and a second stage are a lot cheap

SpaceX is using first stages that have already flown - that someone else already paid full price for. Kerosine, lox, fairings and a second stage are a lot cheaper than launching from a comepletely new rocket. Now the hat trick will be if SpaceX can piggyback starlink sats on regular customer launches...

valuearb 7y ago
Fuel is super cheap, only a few hundred thousand for each Falcon launch and a full Starship/Superheavy stack launch is estimated at only a half million. But it's going to be many decades before launch costs come down close to fuel costs. Right now it's been estimated that SpaceX's launch cost of new Falcon 9 is around $45M, and their cost for launching a re-used Falcon is around $25M, a far cry from the $200k cost of Kerosene & LOX. Re-use is great, but they are still in the early stages. Their goal for Falcon was ten launches per first stage, but they just lost their first attempt at a 5th first stage launch (albeit after it successfully put it's cargo in orbit), after suffering several major anomalies with it's engines. Falcon first stage re-use takes over a month because there is still some re-furbishment and re-testing, and that costs money too. The second stage and fairings also cost around $15M together, and they are destroyed every launch (though they keep attempting fairing recoveries, they haven't been very successful at). SpaceX won't be able to significantly lower launch costs until Starship is successfully completed. Starship gives you have a system designed for up to 100 re-uses, and a re-usable second stage without a fairing. At that point they might be able to lower launch costs to the $10M range, but it's going to be hard to get much lower. There are still a ton of people involved in every launch, and those people need to get paid.

4 ms·

SpaceX is using first stages that have already flown - that someone else already paid full price for. Kerosine, lox, fairings and a second stage are a lot cheap

by jmcguckin 7y ago

valuearb 7y ago
Fuel is super cheap, only a few hundred thousand for each Falcon launch and a full Starship/Superheavy stack launch is estimated at only a half million. But it's going to be many decades before launch costs come down close to fuel costs. Right now it's been estimated that SpaceX's launch cost of new Falcon 9 is around $45M, and their cost for launching a re-used Falcon is around $25M, a far cry from the $200k cost of Kerosene & LOX. Re-use is great, but they are still in the early stages. Their goal for Falcon was ten launches per first stage, but they just lost their first attempt at a 5th first stage launch (albeit after it successfully put it's cargo in orbit), after suffering several major anomalies with it's engines. Falcon first stage re-use takes over a month because there is still some re-furbishment and re-testing, and that costs money too. The second stage and fairings also cost around $15M together, and they are destroyed every launch (though they keep attempting fairing recoveries, they haven't been very successful at). SpaceX won't be able to significantly lower launch costs until Starship is successfully completed. Starship gives you have a system designed for up to 100 re-uses, and a re-usable second stage without a fairing. At that point they might be able to lower launch costs to the $10M range, but it's going to be hard to get much lower. There are still a ton of people involved in every launch, and those people need to get paid.