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A comment on Starship Prototype Unveiled. Parent comment

Re:Starship Prototype Unveiled by semi-extrinsic on Monday September 30, 2019 @01:31AM (#21112021)
> But raw performance on a single trip doesn't matter much if you can just deliver the same payload in two trips to orbit instead.

Except that you're doubling the cost if you have to do two trips.

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Re:Starship Prototype Unveiled by cbhl on Monday September 30, 2019 @01:50AM (#21112102)
If you throw away the rocket, sure, you're doubling the cost if you have to do trips.

If the rocket is reusable, then the vehicle cost gets amortized over the total number of trips, and the per-trip cost gets closer to just the cost of fuel (hopefully at least an order of magnitude less than a new vehicle+fuel on each flight).

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Re:Starship Prototype Unveiled by garmaine on Monday September 30, 2019 @09:13AM (#21114970)
Fuel and oxidizer is 2-3 orders of magnitude less than the cost of an expendable rocket.
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Re:Starship Prototype Unveiled by simonh on Monday September 30, 2019 @02:32AM (#21112282)
Entirely valid point, but doubling 1% of the cost of a single use system is still pretty good, comparatively speaking.
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Re:Starship Prototype Unveiled by test6554 on Monday September 30, 2019 @01:47AM (#21112092)
You just need twice as much methane. So just have PF Chang’s catered and you’re back in orbit in a couple hours.
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