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Falcon 9 had "second stage reusability" the same way that Tesla has full self-driving. That was the plan, but then it turned out to be really hard. But at leas

by mabbo 4y ago

Falcon 9 had "second stage reusability" the same way that Tesla has full self-driving. That was the plan, but then it turned out to be really hard. But at least with SpaceX, they simply gave up and said they were focusing efforts elsewhere.

deleted 4y ago
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avmich 4y ago
BFR is more capable than Falcon, it's only natural to invest in projects with better prospects.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
dexterdog 4y ago
> Falcon 9 had "second stage reusability" the same way that Tesla has full self-driving. So it's in version 11 of the beta?
- 93po 4y ago
  imagine the meme of two button options to press with the dude sweating over which to choose, and one is "tesla released FSD too fast" and the other is "tesla is keeping FSD in beta forever"
cubefox 4y ago
Though it should be mentioned that SpaceX currently no longer pursues Starship upper stage reusability, as the upcoming upper stage prototypes do no longer have a heat shield. Is seems likely that they want to first finalize lower stage reuse, as it is likely much more expensive to produce.
- DennisP 4y ago
  That just means they're not testing reentry in the next several flights. They have a new heat shield design that will fly later.
- _kst_ 4y ago
  Without a heat shield, Starship wouldn't be able to bring a crew back from orbit (or higher), regardless of reuse. Starship HLS, the planned lunar landing version, probably won't need a heat shield, but they'll definitely need shielding on any version meant to bring a crew back to Earth. They're just not bothering with heat shielding for tests that don't need it. (I don't know what kind of shielding the Starship that was supposed to launch today has.)
  - cubefox 4y ago
    Starship launching and landing humans on Earth seems quite far away, if it happens at all. Of course they need the heat shield until then, but the much more immediate benefit of the heat shield comes from reducing cost of cargo flights by allowing for reusability of the upper stage. For ordinary non-human payloads, mainly satellites.

by mabbo 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

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avmich 4y ago

BFR is more capable than Falcon, it's only natural to invest in projects with better prospects.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

dexterdog 4y ago

> Falcon 9 had "second stage reusability" the same way that Tesla has full self-driving. So it's in version 11 of the beta?

93po 4y ago
imagine the meme of two button options to press with the dude sweating over which to choose, and one is "tesla released FSD too fast" and the other is "tesla is keeping FSD in beta forever"

cubefox 4y ago

Though it should be mentioned that SpaceX currently no longer pursues Starship upper stage reusability, as the upcoming upper stage prototypes do no longer have a heat shield. Is seems likely that they want to first finalize lower stage reuse, as it is likely much more expensive to produce.

DennisP 4y ago
That just means they're not testing reentry in the next several flights. They have a new heat shield design that will fly later.
_kst_ 4y ago
Without a heat shield, Starship wouldn't be able to bring a crew back from orbit (or higher), regardless of reuse. Starship HLS, the planned lunar landing version, probably won't need a heat shield, but they'll definitely need shielding on any version meant to bring a crew back to Earth. They're just not bothering with heat shielding for tests that don't need it. (I don't know what kind of shielding the Starship that was supposed to launch today has.)
- cubefox 4y ago
  Starship launching and landing humans on Earth seems quite far away, if it happens at all. Of course they need the heat shield until then, but the much more immediate benefit of the heat shield comes from reducing cost of cargo flights by allowing for reusability of the upper stage. For ordinary non-human payloads, mainly satellites.