Need to hit? They don't need to recover any as far as I know to be profitable. They give discounts on "launch tested" boosters. They hope to recover as many as they can. Some launch profiles (higher orbits, heavier payloads) don't allow for recovery as there has to be some propellant left in the booster to land. I think one of his problems now is storing all the used boosters. With his satellite internet project, he may end up being his own biggest customer.
SpaceX is a private company, so you can only make educated guesses at their financials. From what I've read, SpaceX charges clients around $60-million per Falcon 9 launch. Costs will obviously vary depending on the payload and complexity of the mission. The cost to SpaceX to launch a brand-new Falcon 9 is about $50-million, with the first stage taking up the bulk of that cost at around $35-million. So even if SpaceX junked the first stage of the Falcon 9, it would still make a tidy profit with each launch. But the first stage, as I understand it, can be reused up to 8 or 9 times. A reused first stage would drop the overall launch cost quite significantly, resulting in a pretty wide profit margin for SpaceX. I think the real issue is the ROI (return on investment). SpaceX spent a ton of money getting up and running so I expect they're not "in the black" yet but their business model seems to make sense.
I read Musk intends to use the profits from his satellite ISP biz to fund his vacation home on Mars. Interesting times.
The goals are right there, up to ten uses per booster. As for what percentage of them need to be recovered, there's likely no hard number set on that, since the cost they charge is based on their costs. If recovery rates are lower then it will just cost a bit more per launch, if re-use ended up being better than ten launches per booster then probably a bit cheaper.
It’ll be interesting to see how the recovery rates increase. When 99.99% of the boosters can successfully be recovered 10 times, there’s going to be a strong incentive to push it up to 11, and then 12, and so on.
If they get to that point I'm sure they'll definitely try it for the engineering data and bragging rights, although there could be logistical difficulties where they won't want to shut down F9 production until Starship is up and running, and if you keep re-using boosters you'll end up with nowhere to store them. They're basically aspiring for indefinite reusability with Starship, will be interesting to see if that actually pans out.
As I recall, the goal for Starship is that it's going to ride on top of a Falcon Heavy, and not be an SSTO. There's also Musk's plans to have routine rocket flights between long-distance destinations, like Los Angeles to Sydney...
How long would the passengers be effectively weightless? I get queasy riding on express elevators. I'd be puking my guts out for the whole flight.
Probably not terribly long. The flight time for the LA to Sydney trip would be 30 minutes, part of the trip would be boosting you up (so you'd have a bit of extra gravity, maybe 1.5 gees), and then there'd be braking at the end of the trip. I can't see it really being more than 10-15 minutes.
How many people lose their lunch in the few seconds of a roller coaster? When it comes to motion sickness every minute seems like an hour. Tell you what, I'll put a six pack on ice for you...
Falcon Heavy doesn't have anywhere near enough power to lift Starship. They're building Starship test vehicles first, then once they've got constructing that figured out will start building Super Heavy boosters.
It's a trap! The remaining Russian will lock the door and take over the mission. I saw this once in a movie.
More details: CREW DRAGON RETURNS FROM SPACE STATION On Saturday, May 30, SpaceX's Falcon 9 launched Crew Dragon's second demonstration (Demo-2) mission from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the next day Crew Dragon autonomously docked to the International Space Station. This test flight with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board the Dragon spacecraft returned human spaceflight to the United States. SpaceX and NASA are now targeting 7:34 p.m. EDT on Saturday, August 1 for Crew Dragon to autonomously undock from the Space Station, with the two astronauts aboard the spacecraft, and return to Earth. Approximately 19 hours later, after jettisoning its trunk and re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, Dragon will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida at 2:41 p.m. EDT on Sunday, August 2. The Demo-2 mission is the final major milestone for SpaceX’s human spaceflight system to be certified by NASA for operational crew missions to and from the International Space Station. Once the Demo-2 mission is complete, and the SpaceX and NASA teams have reviewed all the data for certification, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi will fly on Dragon’s first six-month operational mission (Crew-1) targeted for late September. Live launch coverage will begin at 5:15 p.m. EDT on Saturday, August 1 and continue through the targeted splashdown at 2:41 p.m. EDT on Sunday. To watch the webcast or to learn more about the mission, visit spacex.com/launches.
Not out of the woods just yet... high levels of nitrogen tetroxide are preventing Bob and Doug from departing the capsule.
