Human spaceflight for lessg
I’ve been harping on this point for for a while, but the author here goes into a good deal of depth as to why the foolish zombie NASA rocket is a cost wasting wreck. And why the best way to lower the cost of access to space is flight rate on low and medium capacity rockets. In a shocking turn of events, this is the SpaceX plan, or at least appears to be (Falcon 9 Heavy does stretch this a little).
It’s strange how much of the goals of people hoping for lower the cost of access to space rests on the shoulders of a ten year old company founded by a dot com billionaire. There ate others out there of course, but none of them have anywhere near the demonstrated success.
SpaceX itself is in a bit of a lull, because they’re working on converting over from a research and development company to one that can mass produce the engines for the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Falcon 9 Heavy. Once they do, I think we’ll see the flight rate pick up. I’m hopeful that Elon Musk can keep his promise. I’ll be looking forward to the day he retires to Mars.