Elon Musk expects at least 20 or 30 missions from each Falcon 9 block 5 booster rockets. Currently, the booster rockets have been reused 3 times with some recovered for their fourth launch.
Thirty reuses of a first stage Falcon 9 block 5 could reduce the cost of the booster from $30 million to $1 million plus maintenance, recover and operational costs. The total Falcon 9 rocket also has an $8 million second stage and $6 million payload fairing. Payload fairings have been recovered but have not been reused yet. A Falcon 9 with 30 reuse first stage and ten reuse fairings would get close to $10 million in cost.
Other SpaceX Updates
A Crew Dragon supersonic abort test will likely destroy the rocket that launches it.
SpaceX has started building a new Starhopper nose cone. The previous nose cone was badly damaged when blown over in high winds.
How many launches are you expecting to get our of this rocket Elon
— canzy darrin (@CanzyD) February 22, 2019
High probability of this particular rocket getting destroyed by Dragon supersonic abort test. Otherwise, at least 20 or 30 missions for Falcon 9. Starship will take over before the F9 fleet reaches end of life.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2019
Depends on when Crew Dragon comes back. That’s scheduled for launch next Saturday, but lot of new hardware, so time error bars are big.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2019
The new nose cone has arrived via prefab sections onna truck, shiny and much stronger than previous. Going to be up in DAYS.
A cryogenic tanker arrived yesterday.
Musk says second, improved Raptor engine is done.#StarHopper is about to be ready to fly.#SpaceX #Starship https://t.co/4D8jNjkB1Y— Davis (@Davis_404) February 22, 2019
SOURCES- Elon Musk, Twitter, SpaceX, Charlie Burgess renderings of the SpaceX Super Heavy Starship, Youtube Spadre.com
Written by Brian Wang.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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