View Single Post
  #8  
Old January 29th 19, 10:20 AM posted to sci.space.policy
David Spain
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,901
Default Stratolaunch Out Of Launch Vehicle Business

On 1/22/2019 5:53 AM, Jeff Findley wrote:

The final nail in the coffin for Stratolaunch is the fact that SpaceX
has proven out a way to recover first stages from orbital launch
vehicles with relatively little added development costs (I'd like to see
a direct comparison between SpaceX first stage recovery development
costs and the development costs for Stratolaunch's carrier aircraft).

One has to wonder if the same thing could happen to Blue Origin if
Jeff Bezos were to drop dead for some reason. That seems less likely,
as they're further along in vehicle development, but still possible.


Agreed that it's less likely for Blue Origin because they have already
won the engine contract for the Vulcan first stage (BE-4 engine). If
such a thing happened to Blue Origin, BE-4 would certainly continue to
be developed and built. So Blue Origin with its liquid fueled rocket
engines already has much of the development completed (or nearly
complete) for their entire launch vehicle.

All IMHO, of course.

Jeff


All very reasonable IMHO, I totally agree. All very good points.

I'd also like to see a comparison in development costs between Blue
Origin and Virgin Galactic for a sub-orbital hopper excursion vehicle.

I don't see a viable path for VG to orbit. So it will be a niche vehicle
and if Blue Origin can subsidize hopper flights using profits from
orbital trips, probably also a dead end.

Dave