Commercial suborbital providers try to maximize the microgravity exposure... That is not the primary goal of a reusable first stage, which is: getting back to the ground with minimal delta-V. Those payloads would also have to endure some significant G forces.
Quote from: Lars_J on 11/03/2013 08:53 pmCommercial suborbital providers try to maximize the microgravity exposure... That is not the primary goal of a reusable first stage, which is: getting back to the ground with minimal delta-V. Those payloads would also have to endure some significant G forces.Well, the Falcon-9 flight profile could be modified to reduce G-loads on the cargo, perhaps even to the point where not all the engines were used. But you could certainly put some hefty payloads on a longish microgravity trip.Note, incidentally, that in my view the primary goal of the reusable first stage is earning money, delta-V being only a mechanism within that. If there's a way to have it fly a suborbital payload and return while making enough money to make a decent profit, I wouldn't expect SpaceX to walk away unless a competing project made better use of resources (ie. more profit). Currently of course pad availablility is quite a big consideration, although not so much at Vandenburg.Perhaps a good prospect for a sounding rocket type mission would be the first reflight of a Flacon-9 recovered stage.
I wonder how high the first stage could get if it flew mostly straight up, with a small payload. Probably extremely high!
Well, the question is what else they would do with older stages...
Scrap them, of course.
Well, the question is what else they would do with older stages.
Fly them as expendable for performance driven missions
It (in theory) makes business sense (provided they can keep the costs down, which the flight rate and the bulk buys help with) but I don't really see how it meets Musk's key question.
Same reason they sell baseball caps and t-shirts: income and profit, and the latter definitely helps towards Elon's goals. So, providing it can be done at a profit, and doesn't actively hinder their other objectives (by diverting scarce financial and staff resources, perhaps), then why not?
Perhaps best done by another company? Presumably simply manufacturing already designed and tooled for components for cost+ shouldn't be much of a problem for SpaceX.