111–120 of 420 posts
It's funny that SpaceX is using the term "rapid unscheduled disassembly" unironically, despite it originally being a humourous euphemism.
I haven't watched launches since the space shuttle days. I have watched both of the Starship launches, and will watch all of them that I can. Excitement about space is back with a vengeance!
Genuinely, or just because the marketing for it is that good?
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There are customers from three letter agencies who could find a use for this payload capacity, for sure. OTOH imagine if a reusable launch of this costs approximately the same as an expendable Atlas 5 in it's most performant configuration and reliability is proven - NASA could launch a Pluto probe like New Horizons, except it'd be able actually make orbit over there.
Atlas 5 is already completely obsoleted by the Falcon Heavy which costs about half as much, for a reusable launch, and carries about 3x as much. But for Starship, most people don't seem to realize what a potential game changer this is. The goal for Starship is to get costs down to about 15x less than Falcon Heavy. When you can start sending stuff to space for a few dollars per pound, we're not talking about just prob…
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Didn't SpaceX stop streaming their launches?
Their own streams are now only on Twitter, but 3rd parties like NasaSpaceFlight run their own streams, usually with worse visuals but better commentary
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I posted upthread, but another concern is that stray particulate is an ignition source. Rocket fuel pumps are ~100,000 hp, and that energy is put into kinetic energy of the fluid flow. A stray particulate can cause the metal pump and fuel lines to burn in the presence of O2 at 300 atmospheres.
> Rocket fuel pumps are ~100,000 hp That is wild. I need to learn more about rocket fuel pumps :-) Thank you all for these comments.
https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Block-5...
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It means that private industry is doing a better job of allocating funding and meeting demand.
I think NASA also has higher public/pr standards they’re held to. A few spacex failures no one cares much about. If nasa fails a few times everyone (particularly more conservative leaning folk) starts complaining about their precious taxpayer money. Hence NASA likely sticks to project that are very low risk. I’m not saying this is good or bad per se, but public opinion is what it is. It’s also a bit of damned if you…
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Expending the second stage would almost certainly be cheaper per kg than Falcon 9, but I doubt this is still true if you have to expend the booster. Keep in mind we would have to compare it to the ~20M marginal cost of a F9 launch, not the $70M sticker price that a customer would pay.
It might actually be cheaper even if the booster is expended. Falcon9 is estimated to cost about $30M/launch. $20M to build the upper stage, and $10M to launch. Starship is estimated to cost about $100M to build both the booster and the second stage. Add $10M to launch. So 17t/$30M vs 150t/$110M.
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Didn't SpaceX stop streaming their launches?
Their own streams are now only on Twitter, but 3rd parties like NasaSpaceFlight run their own streams, usually with worse visuals but better commentary
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But imagine the PsyOps impact of the enemy looking up and seeing the US raining down literal ODSTs on them ;) Realistically, they'd be dropping into an allied base in-theatre with a pad able to support a Starship landing, and then taking conventional means the rest of the way. Of course, I suspect that when it comes to "drop operators from space" vs. "train extra operators who can be forward deployed," the latter is…
Imagine how much of a sitting duck is a rocket glowing infrared on a ballistic trajectory to the landing site.
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Didn't SpaceX stop streaming their launches?
Their own streams are now only on Twitter, but 3rd parties like NasaSpaceFlight run their own streams, usually with worse visuals but better commentary
