Being one of those old-space persons. I don't think a characterization of who is for or against SpaceX can be made by their association of pre or post "new-space". My old-space days started in 1980 on the Atlas E/F, where an old ICBM which had been in storage since the mid-early 1960's was used. It was dusted off, checked out, payload attachment ring welded on, new avionics, set on the pad, payload stacked on top and launched. All for a total cost to the gov of ~$25M. So I have no problem understanding how SpaceX can do it for $60M.
With all due respect to oldAtlas_Eguy, the majority of the true "total mission cost" for that $25m mission back in 1980 was paid in the late 50's and 60's Cold War "Missile Gap" budgets that supported the design and mass production of those old Atlas ICBM's in the first place, along with all the basic science, engineering and operational lessons learned to go along with them.
I think his point wasn't about the total mission cost, but a look at the operational cost to take an existing rocket, dust it off, bolt on a payload, fuel it, and launch it... which is very relevant to economic questions around reuse.
Someone will probably be along in a bit with better (and mission-specific) info, But until then:I have a very fuzzy recollection of about 1/3 of the fuel load for RTLS and a bit more than half that for downrange landing. You might want to look through SES-9 threads for comparisons of that flight to more typical recoverable fuel loads.
Quote from: Chris_Pi on 04/21/2016 04:51 amSomeone will probably be along in a bit with better (and mission-specific) info, But until then:I have a very fuzzy recollection of about 1/3 of the fuel load for RTLS and a bit more than half that for downrange landing. You might want to look through SES-9 threads for comparisons of that flight to more typical recoverable fuel loads.Thank you.I guess what I should really be asking is whether there is any information on how much fuel the Falcon Heavy side boosters will have upon separation, and whether a low margin RTLS like CRS-9 is possibly a close approximation for those kinds of margins?
HelloI was wondering if there is any information on the fuel margins needed for RTLS and ASDS landings respectively (particularly as a percentage of the original fuel in the stage?) Specifically, I would like to know if there are any estimates as to the amount of fuel that will be left in the booster post-separation for the ASDS landing for JCSat-14, and for the RTLS landing for CRS-9.Sorry if this has been mentioned before.
based on some calculations, that were posted on this forum, around 30 tons for barge landing and around 55 tons for RTLS.
I... don't know what to make of these numbers.
So, Delta IV Heavy is seriously non competitive against Falcon Heavy, while Atlas V is a bit non competitive.
Wow, the F9 have the same lift as the Delta IV Heavy with the RS-68A to LEO in the expandable mode. Does this mean that the Delta IV Heavy can be dispense with for polar missions out of VAFB?