Re:SpaceX’s monstrous, dirt-cheap Starship may transform spa...
by panick21_ on Friday February 18, 2022 @10:38AM
(#30387095)
> While I don't agree that reuse will bring the price down further
Why? If you have to spend almost 10M$~ on an expensive high tech upper stage you your just gone throw in the ocean its clearly give you a price lower bound.
> it's not as if 100t to LEO is novel or anything
Starship does 150t in its early version while being fully reusable.
> The Soviets and later Roskosmos abandoned the vehicle, because they couldn't find a use for it either
The Soviet union collapsed and they didn't have the money for it.
Even the argument that demand isn't there because launch costs are high doesn't hold - the bigger the sat, the more expensive it is and the trend goes towards smaller and cheaper sats.
Building commercial space stations (plural!) could be done using all-up launches and that would be like what - one launch every couple of years?
It's still early days, but it's not as if 100t to LEO is novel or anything - the Energia rocket could do that 35 years ago. The Soviets and later Roskosmos abandoned the vehicle, because they couldn't find a use for it either (after Buran was axed).