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Old May 10th 21, 12:11 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Default B1051 flies, and is recovered, for the 10th time

In article ,
says...

On 2021-05-09 09:38, Jeff Findley wrote:

It seems like it wasn't long ago that some people were doubting that a
first stage could be flown and recovered 10 times. Yet here we are in
2021 and SpaceX is routinely flying recovered boosters.



For the record, I wasn't doubting it could be done. I was saying that at
the time, it ws too early to claim SpaceX had proven it could fly 10
times since at the time that had only flown twice or 3 times, and with
no public info on how difficult the turn around/refurbishement would
involve (time/money).


High bypass turbofan jet engines are far more complex than liquid fueled
rocket engines and yet have become so reliable that twin-jets routinely
fly over oceans. Each GE-90 engine costs $24 million which is far more
than it costs SpaceX to make a Merlin or Raptor.

It's just that no other company besides SpaceX has focused on the cost
of launch and economical reusability. SpaceX is proving that space
travel doesn't need to be as hard or expensive as we've been told for
many decades.

I have no doubt that SpaceX will iterate Raptor into a reliable engine.
Starship and Super Heavy are still under development, but they too are
using iterative development. If all goes well, we'll see Starship prove
out in orbit cryogenic refueling and reuse of an upper stage. These are
both things that other companies could have been working on decades ago,
but chose not to.

Jeff
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