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Re:SpaceX Grasshopper Flies High by Lambdanaut on Tuesday April 23, 2013 @09:17AM (#5594888)
Basically, yes. Fuel costs make up a marginal part of the rocket's cost. One reason the Space Shuttle was such a massive failure was because it was supposed to be "re-usable", yet it really wasn't. It threw away most of its volume every time it launched, yet it still had to carry more fuel into space for the soft landing. It had downsides from both sides of the equation.

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