Quote from: Lars-J on 03/04/2015 11:32 pmAfter three launches in 60 days? I think it is a MUCH safer bet that all the business plans of these small-sat launcher startups aren't worth the paper they are printed on.None of them launched on time.. and it still takes three years to get on the manifest.
After three launches in 60 days? I think it is a MUCH safer bet that all the business plans of these small-sat launcher startups aren't worth the paper they are printed on.
Nonetheless I look forward to seeing the launch frequency (& timeliness!) of these small sat players, if they ever fly.
P.S. I found it really nutting that they claim launching small sats and creating small sat constellations is what will lead to space-colonization. By definition these small launch vehicles are incapable of being used in manned space flight even to LEO (a human rated capsule for 1 person exceeds their launch capability), their is no way they can colonize anything with this tech even if they had thousands of them and they were fully reusable.
3 years manifest has nothing to do with the size of the rocket.
The cost of Firefly's vehicles is supposed to be $8-9 million, but that's for a ~1 ton payload.
Quote from: meekGee on 03/05/2015 04:08 am3 years manifest has nothing to do with the size of the rocket. Yeah, it does. Not only can you find more payloads (and not have to wait until multiple smaller payloads come together) you can also turn around the pad faster for a smaller vehicle. You need less operations staff, less complicated logistics to get the rocket to the pad, off-the-shelf logistics to get the payload to the rocket, etc, etc. The advantage of scale works both ways, they're just different advantages
That's the fallacy.
Mini satellites work in constellations. Every customer wants to launch a large quantity of them.
Here is another article on small LVs. They say Firefly Alpha sun synchronous payload is 210kg, if is so then the per kg to orbit is similar to Electron. ie $5m for 110kg compared to $8m for 210kg.http://seradata.com/SSI/2014/06/uk-launch-symposium-patriotic-rocket-scientists-want-to-put-britain-back-into-launch-business-but-know-that-affordability-is-the-key/
Quote from: TrevorMonty on 03/05/2015 07:23 amHere is another article on small LVs. They say Firefly Alpha sun synchronous payload is 210kg, if is so then the per kg to orbit is similar to Electron. ie $5m for 110kg compared to $8m for 210kg.http://seradata.com/SSI/2014/06/uk-launch-symposium-patriotic-rocket-scientists-want-to-put-britain-back-into-launch-business-but-know-that-affordability-is-the-key/Coincidentally, $5-8 million is the range Shotwell mentioned at a satellite industry conference as the long-term price for a Falcon 9 class launch.
$5-8 million for 13 150 kg to LEO
Quote from: Impaler on 03/05/2015 02:14 amP.S. I found it really nutting that they claim launching small sats and creating small sat constellations is what will lead to space-colonization. By definition these small launch vehicles are incapable of being used in manned space flight even to LEO (a human rated capsule for 1 person exceeds their launch capability), their is no way they can colonize anything with this tech even if they had thousands of them and they were fully reusable.Maybe they meant colonization by ants. :-)
Quote from: fast on 03/05/2015 09:46 am$5-8 million for 13 150 kg to LEO :DWith an aspiration of 12 launches per year.. woooo.. they're totally going to own the entire market for launches with that!
$5-8 million for 13 150 kg to LEO :D