Fórum Defesa Brasil

In 2024, the reusability model is vastly improved, and many analysts believe that the possibility that the full cost of each Falcon 9 launch —– including workforce for transport, refurbishment, assembly and operations, depreciation and amortization on facilities (launch sites, factories, test benches) and reusable items (fairings and boosters) — is currently positioned below $30 million. While some analysts make implicit assumptions that the full cost of Falcon 9 could be as low as $20 million per launch, Eurospace prefers to stay with the more conservative assumption of $28 million per launch.

In the Eurospace model, the assumption set leading to Starlink profitability in 2023 is intimately tied to the assumption of a Starlink Capex under $50 million per launch (satellites included), implying a full cost of a Falcon 9 launch below $30 million. For instance, if the Starlink Capex per launch were only as high as $60 million per launch, total Capex by end 2024 would be $24 billion. Such Capex would imply unsustainable D&A and vastly negative EBIT for the Starlink system alone. If this was the case, SpaceX would probably have had to secure more equity or debt financing to bridge the financial gap. This reverse reasoning is the strongest hint that indeed, for its Starlink system, SpaceX has achieved a capital efficiency never achieved by commercial constellations before, and 70% of that capital efficiency hinges on the low cost of Falcon 9 launches that SpaceX is charging to Starlink.

Scott Manley escreveu:Raptor designs are becoming less Star Wars, more Star Trek.

What about it!? escreveu:Ladies and Gents, let me introduce to you, Raptor 3 SN1. This was just dropped by @elonmusk!

Integrated cooling, no heat shield required, far less welds and seams. This is what a Raptor engine is supposed to look like!

The future. Rapidly. Reusable.

SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission has reached an apogee of 1,400.7 km, making it the highest altitude achieved by humans in Earth’s orbit since the Apollo program over 50 years ago!

This image illustrates the current altitude of the Polaris Dawn Dragon relative to the International Space Station (ISS).

SpaceX

Starship will be used to land astronauts on the lunar surface on NASA's Artemis III mission, which will put the first humans on the Moon since 1972

SpaceX

Views from Starship after launch from Starbase on its sixth flight test

Top 10 SpaceX boosters by number of flights:
Active
B1067: 24
B1063: 21
B1071: 20
B1069: 20
B1073: 19
B1076: 19
B1077: 16
B1075: 15
B1078: 15
B1080: 13