| Wow. Please tell me this is a joke. That $75-90 million figure is the current cost to launch Starship. It is also the approximate cost to build Starship.
Both of these things are true. $5 million per launch is an Elon Musk wet dream that's never going to happen. You know like Tesla FSD? Sure 44 tons to orbit was intentional. You can report back when they intentionally launch 100 tons to orbit. Until then it's just another worthless Musk promise. The fact that the Falcon 9 and heavy can launch more than 2% of their mass into orbit has no bearing on Starship's capability to do the same. You're comparing apples with oranges. Neither of those rockets is fully reusable like Starship. They don't have to carry a return supply of fuel for landing, or a heat shield, landing legs, aerodynamic wings and everything else that's required for full reusability. And refuelling in orbit is only a minor engineering challenge? That's just hilarious! Try reading something other than Musk's X feed. I hope you are being facetious at this point.
Please don't tell me that you think Starship is fuelled with LNG propellent. Fuel boil-off in orbit is real, just like it is on the ground. Except in orbit you don't have a big cryogenically cooled tank of propellant to top it up with sitting only 100m away. Have you ever watched any rocket launch ever? Serious question. Ever wondered what those huge clouds of vapour are? You know, the ones streaming out of the rocket while it's sitting on the pad ready for launch? Boy are you in for a big surprise! |