SpaceX Announces Bigger Rocket

bullitB writes "SpaceX, a commercial developer of rocket systems, has announced a new Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) class rocket. Dubbed the Falcon 9, the rocket will be able to launch nearly 25 metric tons into low earth orbit for a mere $78 million. It looks like they have already signed up Bigelow Aerospace for a launch in 2008."

Comments

Re:May?

[Rei]

Here's to hoping. I've been following them for a while, and their launch prices per kilogram are mind boggling. Of course, so have the numbers of a dozen rocket startups whose rockets eventually ended up in the scrapheap. SpaceX has made it very far, however, and I think at least the Falcon I will make it (assuming the company's books are sound).

Re:We're gonna need a traffic cop

[Rei]

Not that simple. You don't get your 1 lb satellite up for $1500 - you get your satellite up for $6 million. Perhaps you can partner with some other organization who is going to a similar orbit and share costs, or even a few organizations, but you're not going to have a cheap launch vehicle maneuver to 2,000 different orbits and do 2,000 satellite deployments.

This has been Elon Musk's goal all along

[XNormal]

These big rockets have been Elon Musk's goal all along. That's why he didn't use air launch.

Air launching has many advantages: lower atmospheric pressure improves the efficiency of engines, reduces air drag losses, greatly reduces dynamic loads, allowing the use of lighter structures. Perhaps most importantly, air launching can be done over the ocean without expensive range fees - and range delays like SpaceX is currently experiencing.

But air launch does not easily scale to large sizes. For really large rockets you have to launch from the ground.

Elon eventually plans to build a Saturn-V class launcher for for manned missions to Mars. It may seem premature when they haven't launched Falcon 1 yet, but so far they seem to be doing the right things.