By now, it just hope the 2 gets back alive.
(One or both, is likely gonna have a short life after getting back, if they do at all).
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- Thread starter bd popeye
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(One or both, is likely gonna have a short life after getting back, if they do at all).
So the US now has Falcon 9 Full Thrust Block 5, Falcon Heavy, New Glenn and Vulcan Centaur. Quite the line-up of launch vehicles. I wonder if they will be able to generate enough contracts to support New Glenn and Vulcan Centaur. Shame that Vulcan doesn't have a reusable first stage. So I guess it seems like the rocket that is least likely to survive without significant government support.
I wonder if/how Starship will impact any of the US or global launch market going forward?
It will be some years before Starship can do missions other than Starlink with that payload dispenser system. There are also other issues under the hood they have to address. But yes when fully matured it will significantly disrupt the LEO (which is the future of space) market. Will take some years for market to adapt to this paradigm.
ULA is working to get their Centaur V upper stage upgrades funded. Would make for a very powerful space tug that would unlock new capabilities for deep space. The math on distributed lift for high C3 missions is nuts. Don't rule them out just yet. Even without all that, according to Tory Bruno they already sold 70 flights.
ULA is working to get their Centaur V upper stage upgrades funded. Would make for a very powerful space tug that would unlock new capabilities for deep space. The math on distributed lift for high C3 missions is nuts. Don't rule them out just yet. Even without all that, according to Tory Bruno they already sold 70 flights.
SpaceX caught the Starship booster again. So far they are two for two when attempting the catch!
Meanwhile 70% of China's launches are still made by 30 year old hypergolic rockets, and they still don't have a single super heavy lift rocket yet. China really dropped the ball hard when it came to rockets.
Developing a super heavy lift is not easy. If you look at all the countries in the world, no countries really have a robust space program except for the US. ESA or Russia is far behind. China is second. The rest of the world have none to a very minimal space program.
China is #1 in many areas but it cannot be #1 in ALL areas.
How China can compensate for the lack of super heavy lift is to launch 2-3 medium sized lift. It achieves the same objective is all it matters.