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A comment on NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission. Parent comment

Re:NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission by foxyv on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @05:54PM (#45662214)
Booster re-usability is only the first half of the problem. It's the second stage re-usability that makes Starship viable despite its massive second stage. The re-entry heating is trashing their second stages which would make the killer feature of Starship, fast turnaround, impractical.

Also, as far as I can tell from their last test video, they are still shredding their Flaperons at the joint.

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Re:NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission by terminalshort on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @08:03PM (#45663362)
Who cares? Even if they never solve the flap issue, the cost of bolting on new flaps every flight is minimal.
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Re:NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission by foxyv on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @09:02PM (#45663787)
That's like bolting new wings on a 777 after every flight. It's going to cost a LOT and you won't be able to just load up fuel/passengers and take off again.

I'm sure SpaceX will eventually fix the problem. They are well funded, the materials exist, and they have amazing engineers. They just haven't reached that point yet.

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Re:NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission by postingawayonhn on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @12:09AM (#45664813)
'Cost a LOT' is relative though.

Expensive compared to a 777 flight? Sure. Expensive compared to every other moon capable rocket? No.

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Re:NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission by foxyv on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @11:07AM (#45670301)
But is it going to be cheaper than Falcon Heavy?
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Re:NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission by terminalshort on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @11:25PM (#45664628)
When the current industry standard is that the whole 777 is replaced every flight, that's one hell of an improvement.
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Re:NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission by foxyv on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @11:18AM (#45670486)
That isn't the industry standard anymore thanks to SpaceX. Starship isn't competing with Saturn 9 and the Space Shuttle, it is competing with Falcon Heavy. If the second stage cannot be re-used then you may as well launch a much cheaper second stage that isn't rated for re-entry like Dragon.
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Re:NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission by m4rtink on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @06:09PM (#45662365)
I don't think there were any visible burn throughs this way around at the flaps.
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