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A comment on Launch HN: Stoke (YC W21) – Low cost, on-demand delivery to and from space. Parent comment

Re:Launch HN: Stoke (YC W21) – Low cost, on-demand delivery ... by alapsa on Monday March 01, 2021 @10:19AM (#26303519)
Sorry for the confusion! There are plenty of space vehicles that have had "down-mass" capacity - Gemini, Soyuz, Apollo, Dragon, Shuttle, X-37B, etc. They are all spacecraft, although Shuttle is a close in-between. The distinction here is this is a true upper stage, which can also return items from orbit.

We are looking to serve a complementary market to New Glenn and are not planning to fly on that vehicle.

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Re:Launch HN: Stoke (YC W21) – Low cost, on-demand delivery ... by sandworm101 on Monday March 01, 2021 @06:27PM (#26309939)
>> X-37B

So the X-37 has a down-mass capacity. That means it has either docked or at least intercepted with something else in space close enough to transfer material. I was unaware that it could perform such maneuvers. I certainly haven't read anything in the open source about such missions.

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