Space X prepares for its inevitable bankruptcy

[jeriendhal]

Well, that's the usual result when a private company announces the construction of a never before tested or used landing system. But it does make for a very pretty video.

Gacked from james_nicoll

Royce wonders how big a woody this gave Jerry Pournelle.

Comments

[aberrantangels]

Royce wonders how big a woody this gave Jerry Pournelle.

It would be difficult to quantify his erection with mundane numbers. His penis is partially fused with infinity.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Rocket-powered vertical landing has had a number of successes, including on some reusables. What I'm wondering is if they'll still have a worthwhile payload fraction after adding the heat shield, landing gear, and reentry fuel to their stages.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm wondering about. The weight gain from the gear and associated nav and manuvering systems, plus the expense of refurbishing it for another launch, would seem to cancel out the reusability cost advantages.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

After 4 successful launches (plus a successful return) I'm going to assume they can do the basic math. From my own time at an RLV company it'll come down to "Worth it if we can get X flights." The engineers will have calculated X (pure guess: 50+) and the CEO has to decide if he can get enough customers to justify the up-front investment.