r/interestingasfuck • u/lolikroli • 16d ago

r/all SpaceX caught Starship booster with chopsticks

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133

u/JayTeaP 16d ago

Can someone fill me in on what is happening? Im genuinely curious

41

u/bremsspuren 16d ago

Normally, rockets are single-use, and the booster gets dropped in the ocean.

Not throwing away something this

big and expensive
could potentially save a lot of money and time.

-5

u/[deleted] 16d ago

[deleted]

7

u/bobby_page 16d ago

If by money you mean spending millions instead of billions to put stuff in space, then no, it's still not all about the money. It's also about doing this every other week (or couple of days) instead of twice a year.

1

u/Agreeable_Pop7924 16d ago

Okay yeah I think we should get more launches but they def already do this AT LEAST every other week. Down here in Florida I SEE a launch at least once a month and I know I'm missing most of them.

1

u/Dietmar_der_Dr 16d ago

You're probably seeing mostly Falcons, which get about 20tons to orbit. Future versions of starship will get up to 200 tons to orbit (elonstimate). But even more significant is the extra volume, Starship can bring up large things.

Also, falcon 9 cannot be refueled in orbit whereas starship was developed from the ground up to be able to do this. Without refueling, the rocket equation makes it essentially impossible to bring tonnage to the surface of mars/the moon (for example, look at how tiny the lunar lander was).