There are many small orbital launch vehicles proposed or under development

Re:There are many small orbital launch vehicles proposed or ... by elil17 on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @10:44PM (#21459562)

Smaller diameter rockets have a much worse fuel ratio (because of fuel tank geometry issues), so there’s no way they’ll ever be cheaper than larger rockets. They fundamentally must use more fuel per kg of payload than large rockets because fuel tank wet mass to dry mass ratio increases linearly with diameter.

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Re:There are many small orbital launch vehicles proposed or ... by DuskStar on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @10:57PM (#21459611)

Right, and that's why smallsat launchers are only really viable for orbits/launches that can't be served by rideshares. Better to pay $5mil for an Electron to launch your smallsat than to book an entire Falcon 9, even if the $/kg is far higher.

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Re:There are many small orbital launch vehicles proposed or ... by greglindahl on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @11:16PM (#21459662)

Companies like Momentus [1] are happy to sell you a tug that will turn a rideshare to a common orbit into your unusual orbit.

SpaceX's rate for an Electron-sized payload is 1/6 the price of an Electron.

1: https://momentus.space/

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Re:There are many small orbital launch vehicles proposed or ... by DuskStar on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @11:48PM (#21459794)

I have to say, 5 km/s delta v is more than I was expecting from a tug like that. Still, I really wouldn't be surprised if adding one of those to your smallsat would cost more than $5m.

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