When we think of “commercial” rockets, the ones that are enabling new types of business cases that empower the emerging space industry, it’s usually the small or medium lift class vehicles that come to mind. Those are the ones that are built to be pumped out repeatedly off an assembly line. They’re not perfect at the start, but are iterated such that each is a little improved over the last. For these rockets, affordability is often a higher priority than squeezing the last bit of performance out of the engines. I’m talking about vehicles like the RocketLab Electron, Virgin Orbit LauncherOne, or even at the larger end, the SpaceX Falcon 9.
My understanding is that Falcon 9 achieved its low price point due largely to its reusability. Amongst heavy lift vehicles, you noted Glenn is intended to be reusable. Do you believe heavy lift vehicles are now (or will in the next generation) move toward reusability, or are there constraints that make this unlikely?
Thanks for reading and for the comment! Reusability definitely makes more sense as the vehicle gets larger, so New Glenn should benefit significantly from reusability if/when they pull it off. In fact SpaceX's next-generation rocket Starship (which is in the super heavy-lift class) intends to reuse not just the first stage but the second stage as well. Very small rockets may continue to be expendable for some time, but if New Glenn and Starship are successfully reusable, I think it will drive any expendable heavy and super-heavy rockets out of the market.
Curious why Falcon Heavy isn't in this comparison - think it might change some of the pricing conclusions? That's to say nothing about the planned Starship/SuperHeavy.
Hi Matt, thanks for the comment! It's a good point about Falcon Heavy but I didn't include it because it is actually a super heavy-lift class rocket because it can put well over 50 tons into LEO. It will end up in a future letter!
My understanding is that Falcon 9 achieved its low price point due largely to its reusability. Amongst heavy lift vehicles, you noted Glenn is intended to be reusable. Do you believe heavy lift vehicles are now (or will in the next generation) move toward reusability, or are there constraints that make this unlikely?
Thanks for reading and for the comment! Reusability definitely makes more sense as the vehicle gets larger, so New Glenn should benefit significantly from reusability if/when they pull it off. In fact SpaceX's next-generation rocket Starship (which is in the super heavy-lift class) intends to reuse not just the first stage but the second stage as well. Very small rockets may continue to be expendable for some time, but if New Glenn and Starship are successfully reusable, I think it will drive any expendable heavy and super-heavy rockets out of the market.
Curious why Falcon Heavy isn't in this comparison - think it might change some of the pricing conclusions? That's to say nothing about the planned Starship/SuperHeavy.
Hi Matt, thanks for the comment! It's a good point about Falcon Heavy but I didn't include it because it is actually a super heavy-lift class rocket because it can put well over 50 tons into LEO. It will end up in a future letter!