[AR] Re: Falcon 9 lifetime of 5 flights?

  • From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2020 14:37:52 -0400 (EDT)

On Tue, 24 Mar 2020, Henry Vanderbilt wrote:

SpaceX knew this going in.  Being sensible people not locked into the established way of doing things, they likely would have set up a production establishment for sixty expended cores a year very differently than they did the plant for ~12 5X reused cores...

One caution on this: remember that intact reuse *wasn't* the original plan, even for Falcon 9 -- the plan was splashdown-and-salvage. Using salvaged subassemblies in new construction wouldn't save you nearly as much on the production establishment. They "knew this going in" only for facilities built since the decision to switch to Plan B, retrofire and powered landing.

Henry

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