With Firefly Alpha's Flight 3 success, the U.S. now has three working all-kerosene/LOX orbital launch vehicles: Alpha, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy. It recently lost two from that list: Astra Rocket 3 and Virgin Orbit LauncherOne. Prior to 2006, the only all-kerosene/LOX US orbital launches were by a handful of Atlas rockets that reached LEO (SCORE, Mercury-Atlas, and Atlas ATDA). Then SpaceX launched Falcon 1. Currently, Firefly plans an all-kerosene/LOX MLV while Astra may one day fly an all kerosene/LOX Rocket 4, but the prospect of once again seeing five active U.S. all-kerolox rockets seems unlikely. - Ed Kyle
ABL. everyone always forgets about them lol
Quote from: Robotbeat on 09/15/2023 09:53 pmABL. everyone always forgets about them lolYes. I did forget, but I was thinking more about launch vehicles that have made orbit! - Ed Kyle
I would add Rocketlab's Electron to that list since legally Rocketlab is a US company. Note that would only apply to missions without a kickstage.
One day, the US oil industry could tap into oil reserves in Colorado (home of ULA), Texas and New Mexico, so that whatever additional oil is extracted from those reserves is used to produce kerosene for additional Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
Quote from: Vahe231991 on 09/15/2023 09:38 pmOne day, the US oil industry could tap into oil reserves in Colorado (home of ULA), Texas and New Mexico, so that whatever additional oil is extracted from those reserves is used to produce kerosene for additional Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.What is special about those 3 states petroleum reserves, are they especially RP-1 production friendly?
Quote from: Hog on 09/20/2023 06:08 pmQuote from: Vahe231991 on 09/15/2023 09:38 pmOne day, the US oil industry could tap into oil reserves in Colorado (home of ULA), Texas and New Mexico, so that whatever additional oil is extracted from those reserves is used to produce kerosene for additional Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.What is special about those 3 states petroleum reserves, are they especially RP-1 production friendly? Texas has an oil refinery in Houston for processing kerosene, and the oil refinery in Commerce City, Colorado processes kerosene, so the extraction of oil from Colorado and refinement into rocket kerosene by the oil refinery in Commerce City for use in future Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches could specially help reduce the average price of oil in Colorado.
Quote from: Vahe231991 on 09/15/2023 09:38 pm.....Meaningless post. The source of the oil doesn't matter, it is the refining.
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