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by baq 540 days ago
I’m not sure which profiles don’t make sense unless they can’t figure out payload doors. Stage 2 reuse means you can put up 50 tons or so of stage 3 in LEO for approximately free in current payload pricing terms, it’s a crazy number. (Advertised capacity of 100-150 tons is probably pointless and/or volume-limited anyway for a third stage.)
1 comments

Not all profiles end up in orbit. At this point in time, reusuability sacrifices delta-v for fuel. If you want to launch scientific missions you want to escape Earth orbit. If we're going to land on Mars, we're going to need a lot of stuff sent there first.
But it doesn’t matter if you can launch 10x the mass for the same price to LEO and light your stage 3 to get anywhere you’d like to be. Stage 3 will have enough delta v and starship’s doesn’t matter as long as it gets you to the parking orbit.