SpaceX reveals designs for reusable rockets

The man who almost single-handedly made the environmentally-conscious electric vehicle sexy with the Tesla, is now hoping to do the same for space flight, but with a twist, reusable launch vehicles.

While NASA has recently drifted away its bold expeditions of the past and China ramps up its efforts to build a space station, Elon Musk's SpaceX has revealed its designs for what would be truly reusable launch vehicles for space travel. The reusable vehicle will be based on SpaceX's Falcon 9 craft which, at roughly $60 million for launch and construction, is still the cheapest solution on the market.

Source



$60 million sure beats NASA's cost for launching the space shuttle which was about $450 million a go. It looks like private industry is winning this race hands down.

Interesting...

Soft landing using rockets for re-entry, would need a lot more fuel than if they used parachutes.

reply to post by Chadwickus


I agree , its hard to see how this could be cost and weight effective. But i guess Space X must have worked it out.

looks impossible....but what do i know..

I didn't see the 'reusable' part of the heavy lift thing, just promises.

Didn't NASA already have heavy lift reusable solid rocket boosters like 30 years ago?

What is new here?

OH, I get it, it's NOT NASA, OK.

The under boost rentry would require insane amounts of fuel, seems to me.

I keep waiting for "Shuttle Lite". A launcher that has the ability to land like the shuttle...

No life support, no manned control systems. Just a UAV writ large, with rocket engines.

reply to post by Chadwickus


Why Spacex Abandoned Parachuting into Water for Reusable Rockets