Re:The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter...
by inglor_cz on Thursday February 25, 2021 @03:18AM
(#26260812)
While the 2nd stage is 18 % of the rocket by weight, it only has one engine. The booster has nine. Engines are by far the most expensive part of the rocket, or used to be. (ULA says that engines make 65 per cent of the total cost of their first stages.)
> If reusing rocket was so profitable, there is a high chance someone else would have done it before.
AFAIK it is only like 10-12 years that computers and engineering software got good enough to simulate everything that happens in a rocket engine, sloshing of fuel etc. Cruder simulations were available before, but not good enough for that.
SpaceX engineers did most of the design and testing on computers. It took them only a few tries in the real world to nail the first landing.
Earlier pioneers would have to try in practice, which would mean a lot more failures and a lot more money, with a possible deadly incident in between.
> If reusing rocket was so profitable, there is a high chance someone else would have done it before.
AFAIK it is only like 10-12 years that computers and engineering software got good enough to simulate everything that happens in a rocket engine, sloshing of fuel etc. Cruder simulations were available before, but not good enough for that.
SpaceX engineers did most of the design and testing on computers. It took them only a few tries in the real world to nail the first landing.
Earlier pioneers would have to try in practice, which would mean a lot more failures and a lot more money, with a possible deadly incident in between.