3 ms·
My understanding is that Starship is financially comparable to Falcon 9 on a per-payload basis even if fully expended.
by TMWNN 3y ago
My understanding is that Starship is financially comparable to Falcon 9 on a per-payload basis even if fully expended.
- cryptonector 3y agoIf so that would be amazing.
- dotancohen 3y agoComparable to Falcon 9? Unlikely - they've got three dozen Raptor engines on that thing, which alone account for the entire cost (not price) of a Falcon 9 flight. Maybe it is comparable to legacy launch providers, such as the Deltas and Atlases. But unlikely comparable to a Falcon 9 launch, even considering the larger payload.
- avmich 3y agoIn https://payloadspace.com/starship-report/ https://payloadspace.com/starship-report/ the cost of Falcon-9 launch is estimated as $15M. One Raptor is less than $1M, but full Starship has 39 Raptors. Starship will be much more attractive when it will become fully reusable though.
- dzhiurgis 3y agoYou are launching 8x more payload vs ~15 reuses of Falcon9
- senectus1 3y agothe weights isn't the only upgrade, the SIZE is another very important metric.... They'll be able to get much larger objects up there without having to piece them together up there. Especially important for habitable objects and factory objects.
- dotancohen 3y agoThe current iteration of Starship has a payload bay door fit only for the Starlink satellite.
- senectus1 3y ago"The current iteration" is also just a proof of concept. Their published plans include fliptop and large bay doors. not to mention the HLS (Human Landing System) that includes an airlock.
- thinkcontext 3y agoThat's what they aspire to. The only way to get there is if they are able to achieve reuse into the dozens of times and there's no guarantee they will be able to do that. I hope they are able to but there's still a lot of work to get there.