>So my bet… is that you might start to see development of a Staged combustion engine… and a switch to methane fuel Not much of a bet – Musk talked about this t

>So my bet… is that you might start to see development of a Staged combustion engine… and a switch to methane fuel Not much of a bet – Musk talked about this two months ago. http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/hyperbola/2012/11/musk-goes-for-methane-burning.html http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/hyperbola/2012/11/musk-goe... >SpaceX's initial plan will be to build a lox/methane rocket for a future upper stage codenamed Raptor. The design of this engine would be a departure from the "open cycle" gas generator system and lox/kerosene propellants that the current Merlin 1 engine series uses. Instead, the new rocket engine would burn lox/methane in a much more efficient "staged combustion" cycle that many Russian rocket engines use.