"Tom Merkle" wrote in message
om...
I wonder how Elon Musk slipped this one under the radar. According to
this article:
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/70/1

Elon Musk says the follow on to Falcon I will be a vehicle called
Falcon 5, which will essentially use 5 clustered Merlin engines
(Falcon I uses 1) in a Saturn-V like configuration, with an additional
Merlin on the upper stage. Musk claims this configuration will cost
approximately $12 mil to launch. That compared to the Falcon 1 at $6
mil. By my reckoning, that means Musk anticipates launching Falcon 5,
which has 6 Merlins on it, and presumably some other complex design
differences too, for only twice the price of Falcon I.

Does anybody see any way this makes any kind of sense?

Tom Merkle

Fixed costs are the expensive part.

The next best example is the Delta Heavy - 3 rockets but less then twice the
cost.
A Delta or Atlas using five engines as a fist stage and one as a second
stage would probably cost less then 3 times as much as a base rocket.


You see much the same effect as you add solids to existing rockets.