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tsimionescu01/17/20253 repliesview on HN

Increased launch cadence is an operational achievement, not an engineering one.

And I'm not so sure that they actually decreased price to launch all that much. First of all, it's definitely not "several orders of magnitude", the best numbers quoted are maybe half price or so for a Falcon 9 compared to another contemporary rocket. And by my understanding, the US government at least is paying about as much for Falcon 9 as it was for a Soyuz to bring an astronaut to the ISS, at least.


Replies

inemesitaffia01/17/2025

NASA pays both Boeing and SpaceX less than Soyuz was.

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jve01/17/2025

I was comparing to the achievements of 60 years ago when they put people on the moon :) They are working towards that in a sustainable manner.

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specialist01/17/2025

> ...operational achievement, not an engineering one.

How would I distinquish between the two, esp wrt rocketry?

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