SpaceX is wisely recycled NASA and Russia Tech too. Why reinvent all the wheels? SpaceX lured away some of the best industry engineers by promising projects that actually get launched. Accomplishment is as important as money to some of us techies.
Re:SpaceX raises another $100M
by Already__Taken on Tuesday November 28, 2017 @05:33AM
(#15795987)
Yeh what's that story of the engineer saying they need a heat shield solution. So spacex just bought the company that made what he recommended they look into.
Also, Mars. There aren't many companies that can dangle a meaningful mission in front of you and make it feel they actually mean it.
Re:SpaceX raises another $100M
by timthelion on Monday November 27, 2017 @08:01PM
(#15793341)
Well, Blue Origin is in a certain dimension re-writing rules. They are using a new more efficient engine design. SpaceX has been pretty conservative with engines if I'm not mistaken.
The Raptor engine in development is also very efficient (full flow staged combustion of methalox).
And while the Merlin series has been conservative in most aspects, Merlin 1D has a few unique characteristics, like the pintle injector (previously used in the Apollo LM), phased-shutoff (or whatever the spelling is, from Tom Mueller's interview from half a year ago), use of subchilled propellants and a very tightly manufacture process that makes it very cheap to produce.
On top of that it's now the engine with highest thrust-to-weight ratio in history that has flown, despite being open cycle (gas generator). And not a single M1D failed so far.
As a case in point, Blue Origin started before SpaceX. They have put more money into development than SpaceX. But they have yet to launch a single rocket into orbit.
And yet, Blue Origin is not bad. They appear to be in the same ballpark of costs as NASA originally estimated for development on the Falcon 1. They are just failing to rewrite the rules the way that SpaceX has consistently done.
That said, if SpaceX ever fails as a business because Elon takes one risk too many, I'm sure that Blue Origin will happily buy the technology...