[xphos]

Yeah but think about the difference in cost the space shuttle alone costed almost 200 billion dollars over its 40 flights its still 5 billion dollars a flight. Now compare this to these boosted they don't include a mission module but they cost about 62 million in there first launch and following launches are only about 15 million dollars. Note to mention the pace of launches are much much faster than the space shuttle. These may not be orbital boosters but they don't have to be these costs demonstrate the mistake with space shuttle is trying to do to much. Now I cited the total cost of the space shuttle and but to say just because these boosters haven't reached 39 flights so they are a long way off is silly they did this in 2 years the space shuttles lifetime was like 40 yrs.

[andyjohnson0]

I don't think that comparing this booster with the STS is particularly valid. While I don't want to downplay SpaceX's very real achievement here, the STS was a much more complex and flexible platform, it was human-rated (with all the engineering overhead that that entails), it was built without the advantage of the last forty-plus years of technical development, and it was done first. All those things cost money - at the time or with hindsight.

[modeless]

F9 is human-rated.

[andyjohnson0]

Yes you're right - since November last year. Thanks for the correction.