On 3/2/22 9:32 AM, Valdis Klētnieks wrote:
On Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:51:05 -0500, Dorn Hetzel said:
Yeah, if Russia needs one 1st stage booster for every bird they kill, and SpaceX needs one 1st stage booster for every 50 they put up.... Yes, Russia is bigger than SpaceX, but that's a tremendous ratio. Plus the asymmetry is even worse than that....
Elon can use that *same* first stage booster to launch *another* 50 next week, while the Russians need to get a *new* booster for shooting down the next bird.
That's the *real* game changer in what SpaceX is doing....
I read this article on the upcoming Starship and it's really interesting. They are not only going to reuse the primary stage, but also the second stage. They're also going to use methane rather kerosene which burns much, much cleaner so they can basically just fill it all up again, and blast off for another. For Starlink, they could probably put 500 a week up, maybe more. https://everydayastronaut.com/definitive-guide-to-starship/ Mike