the Chinese company LinkSpace has done another VTVL test of their Falcon 9 miniclone
The Chinese company LinkSpace has done another VTVL test of their Falcon 9 miniclone
Cameron Brown
Ayden Collins
ok
Carter Green
That thing is smaller than a lot of sounding rockets. How are they going to get it into orbit?
Robert Harris
So this is the might of Chinese engineering?... No but seriously this thing will be useless, RTLS basically halves a rockets payload to orbit unless it uses a drone ship, and this thing is planned to be about the same size as the Electron rocket which is only able to send 250kg to orbit.
Lucas Walker
it's all about the cost per kg to orbit. This thing can btfo the 8 or so other smallsat companies if they can launch cubesats for less.
Parker Rodriguez
>that fucking dude just standing there filming while they test a fucking rocket
Juan Sanchez
This shit's impressive. We're about to enter an era of mushrooming space travel start-ups.
Jacob Smith
Cool, but call me when they start launching into orbit.
Landon Perry
What's your number?
Dominic Martin
But Electron is incredibly cheap to make because it's mainly made out of composite materials and 3D printed parts, including the engines; it's so cheap in fact, that they are aiming to eventually do 100 launches a year, regardless of whether or not this happens it shows that it's an incredibly cheap rocket to manufacture. With rockets this small RTLS is out of the question, nobody's going to buy a Line 1 launch which can launch 50kg (1 cubsat) when it's only $20 million more expensive to buy an Electron that can launch 250kg (5 cubesats). Also cost per kg to orbit doesn't work with small rockets, as if small sat makers cared about that they'd be buying rideshares on Falcon Heavys by the dozen. What small satellite makers actually want is a launch vehicle that can put their payload into an optimum orbit which can't be done on rideshare where they aren't the priority. RTLS would not work well with this industry model, the Falcon 9 only works as well as it does because it's actually a massive rocket, it's classified as a heavy launch vehicle and can carry as much as a Proton rocket to LEO expendable (22,800kg). The F9 works well because it's got plenty of capacity to sacrifice while the Line 1 will have ridiculously tight margins in a reusable configuration.
Cameron Lee
Correction: Electron only costs $6 million per launch
Jack Fisher
6 million is stupid expensive for what it is. Remember, that's what the marginal cost per BFR flight will be. Even if new line 1 ends up launching just four cubesats at a time in reusable mode, but the price is tiny, it will be the economical option.
Brandon Lewis
The price listed for the BFR is an aspirational price that can only be achieved by reusing it many times, it will likely start much higher than that. The Electron costs $6 million, that's only $6 million for each rocket made, you could launch 10 Electron rockets for the price of a single Falcon 9 launch, that's ridiculously cheap for a rocket.
Nathaniel Hall
10 rockets for the price of a single f9, but...
150kg vs 20,000kg. Again, it's the price per kg that matters. Electron is stupid expensive.
Blake Price
lol they just edited out the tether on it
Carter Reed
That's not how it works in the small sat industry; nobody cares about cost per kg, they just want their satellites to be put in the optimum orbit for a cheap price which is a service only the Electron currently can provide.
Jonathan Sanchez
That's a tech demonstrator, not a launch vehicle.
Ian White
They would cater to different demands as user explained
Jose Morris
..might of Chinese copying
fixed it for you.
Chinese are shit at everything except copying mimicking things.
im gonna fix everything in this thread:
... if they can launch space junk for less.
Lincoln Baker
It is hilarious they are only this far along when amateur youtubers have been to this point like a year or more ago.
Zachary Edwards
That's cool, I guess. NASA did something cooler years ago. They made a lander that was able to take off and identify a landing spot on it's own
youtube.com
Michael Edwards
Chinese (((company))).
You mean Chinese government larping as a company right.
Lincoln Roberts
Chinese companies are Jewish now wtf
Jaxon Cox
no vertical landing of a low thrust rocket is not impressive
people did it fucking 60 years ago
Jason Clark
Reusable rockets are a meme stop with the fake news.
Even the biggest proponents of the idea spacex are giving up on it and have been systematically expending their rockets in the recent months.
It's time to face reality and accept it.
Owen Hernandez
That's not the reason their expending them, they've got too many first stages (that can only be reused twice) lying around so they need to clear storage space for the new Block 5 model which can be reused many times.
Dylan Collins
>trying this hard
Caleb Perry
spacenews.com
Nathaniel Jackson
Haha, that sounds like a story from The Sirens of Titan, where two guys are stuck in a cave on a space ship that can only go down.
To find their way back up, they simply turned the thing upside down.
Isaiah Allen
composites are not cheap, but they are necessary to produce a small launch vehicle
Made out of aluminum would be better but there goes their 250 kg payload
>that they are aiming to eventually do 100 launches a year
Obviously that won't happen because there is no market for that, there isn't THAT many funny orbits that people want to launch to.
Nicholas Johnson
Levi Gutierrez
>Falcon 9 miniclone
Please. This is some tinker toy shit, nothing remotely comparable to Falcon 9, unless you somehow thought that F9 was the first VTVL rocket rather than the first practical VTVL orbital launch booster.
Jaxson Bell
It’s a f9 miniclone due to the fineness, the use of four landing legs, the use of gridfins, and a highly throttle-able engine
Nathan Lee
spacex didn't invent legs or gridfins or rocket engines