3 ms·

It may not even be cheaper when it works; upper stage reuse still isn't there. (I'd like it to be, but until it is, it isn't).

• fastball 7mo ago
  The argument was "why do you even need Starship?", not "will it be fully re-usable at the end of the day?"
  • ben_w 7mo ago
    > Almost every single Falcon 9 customer will prefer launching on Starship if/when it is available, because the cost will be much lower Cost reduction depends on it being fully reusable.
    • fastball 7mo ago
      Not actually sure that is true. Entirely possible that just by re-using Superheavy and expending Starship they could get to a price point lower than F9 (which also has an expendable upper stage).
      • ben_w 7mo ago
        Perhaps. But until it is demonstrated, unfortunately because Musk has been overstating future costs of a lot of things for a while now, we can't rely on his optimistic statements for forecasts of our own. I'm only saying your previous "will be" is too strong a claim, not that it's completely unthinkable that it may come to be. That said, it's not like other billionaires aren't working on the same basic idea, even if they're copying what was already proven with the Falcon 9, which is great for people who want to go to space but not so much for SpaceX investors.