/sci/ - Science & Math

>>12260803

>>11927578
The Methalox thing is important. Until SpaceX no one touched it with a ten foot pole except for studies about “future manned mars missions maybe”. No one wanted to spend the money to develop a Methalox engine. All we were left with were Russian Kerolox engines, expensive as fuck RL10’s, also expensive RS-25’s, and the monstrosity that’s is the RS-68. Literally without SpaceX it’s unlikely that a (NEW) American-made engine would have arisen for a long time thanks to government contracts.

Not saying there wasn’t interest in Methalox because NASA really loved the idea of refitting RL10’s to use methane fuel. Sadly they never used any of their money to even build a test variant.

It’s scary to think about a world without SpaceX.

>Alternate 2020 in which Falcon 1 flight 4 failed, SpaceX lost their COTS contract, and preceded to become bankrupt and defunct by 2010.
>All we have is SLS
>Blue Origin moves at a glacier pace and has yet to fly even New Shepard
>Starliner fails OFT, have to wait until 2021 for Americans to fly to the ISS on American ships.
>NASA plans to send humans to mars “Eventually”
>Colonization of Mars is pushed into imagination.
>Russia and China dominate the commercial launch industry

Scary world

So Starship is a spaceplane right?

Also can’t Starship just destroy Blue Origin’s tourist base? I mean a single flight is $2 Million for an up and down hop. Carry a hundred or so people. Bam, it suddenly costs $20,000 per person.

>https://spacenews.com/nasa-reassessing-date-for-first-sls-launch/
>SLS getting delayed AGAIN
fuck this jobs program

What are the advantages and disadvantages of single stage or two stage spaceplanes compared to Space X's BFR?