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Starship 12.5km launch

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jogri:

--- Quote from: wraper on December 12, 2020, 11:04:48 pm ---
--- Quote ---Cost per launch Over US$2 billion excluding development
--- End quote ---
Hell yeah,  :palm:

--- End quote ---

What? Just because one of the four RS-25 engines of the first stages costs more than an entire, fully expendable Falcon Heavy launch?

I just did the math, if i didn't screw up somewhere a Block 1 SLS has a net weight of roughly 2470 tons. Falcon Heavy can lift 63.8 tons to LEO, so you could theoretically get a complete, fueled SLS to orbit in 39 trips, each costing 90 million USD for fully reusable Falcons. This would cost you 3.5 billion, if we add the development cost of the SLS to the 2 billion per launch (~10 launches seem realistic, that would mean roughly extra 2 billion dev cost per launch) it is actually cheaper to launch the SLS on another rocket instead of flying it under its own power...

vad:

--- Quote from: S. Petrukhin on December 12, 2020, 06:21:10 am ---Please, explain what makes SpaceX so happy? With modern tools, they try to repeat what was done many years ago with primitive tools. Yes, well done, it's good that there is work for engineers, but this is the invention of the wheel.

I bought a tube from an old soviet scope and want to make it a three-beam high-voltage low-freq scope with isolated inputs - will you be happy for me?  :)

--- End quote ---
Reusable engines for one thing. Lowering cost of launch for other. 1.5B per launch of Space Shuttle in 2000’s dollars vs 57M per launch of Falcon 9 in 2020’s dollars.

The Starship (the rocket that is discussed in this topic)  is super heavy rocket capable of putting 150 tonnes to LEO. It has no competition. Even Mother Russia was not capable of lifting 150t in its entire 63 years of history of space exploration. The closest was Saturn V that was retired long time ago.

wraper:

--- Quote from: vad on December 13, 2020, 01:38:58 am ---The Starship (the rocket that is discussed in this topic)  is super heavy rocket capable of putting 150 tonnes to LEO.

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Latest spec claims 100+t. The thing is, as it's reusable, it's intended to be refueled by other Starships on orbit, therefore can deliver 100 t not only to LEO, but anywhere. While anything else takes a huge hit on payload mass, and cannot be refueled economically by expendable rockets. About reusability, unlike Falcon rockets, it intended for rapid reuse without any refurbishment, the same day if needed.

rdl:
The SLS has become a financial disaster. It survives mostly only because of politics. Using four of the very expensive RS-25 engines on an expendable booster is stupid beyond belief.

wraper:

--- Quote from: rdl on December 13, 2020, 08:58:18 am ---The SLS has become a financial disaster. It survives mostly only because of politics. Using four of the very expensive RS-25 engines on an expendable booster is stupid beyond belief.

--- End quote ---
What's the most surprising, is how they already spent more than $20 billion on severally delayed all-old technology, old engines, old solid rocket boosters, basically made nothing new, and it's still not finished. And what's supposed to launch soon is under-specced SLS block 1 with no human carrying capability, which makes no sense whatsoever. And development shall continue, yay  :palm:.

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