Henry,
I don't get it. You discount falcon 9 as if it were unremarkable.
DC-X was experimental concept development vehicle. You seem to imply that
full development of an operation fully reusable fast turnaround ssto was
right around the corner.
It was not. What's the aniversary again?
The ssto reusable concept is proving to be impractical, and even the return
and reuse of the second stage of falcon. 9 is proving very challenging.
Investing all that energy to get all that mass to orbit, then investing
much of it again to return the whole stage intact is quite unlikely to ever
be practical.
If on orbit activity ever approaches near the levels we All dream of it
will make much more sense to keep the hardware up there and design for
reconfigurability And recyclability in orbit or on the moon or beyond
rather than investing in the costs to return the second stage to earth in
rapidly reusable condition. Earth is in a deep gravity well.
Meanwhile one company has, in use, a fully reusable booster doing real work
sending cargo and satellites to orbit. Given that no other company in the
world has such a vehicle flying, or even on paper except for blue origin,
surely SpaceX's strategy to charge what the market can bear as a
competitive price, and make some margin to fund development of BFR, is
understandable.
And BFR will be fully reusable, though not ssto for quite practical
reasons. The practicality of returning the orbital stage seems to be very
much scale dependant.
And it will have DCX to thank.
PS: Anyone want to bet whether bfr or new Glenn flies first or flies
commercially first?
jim fackert
Unapologetic SpaceX fan.
On Aug 20, 2018 1:08 AM, "FreeLists Mailing List Manager" <
ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
arocket Digest Sun, 19 Aug 2018 Volume: 06 Issue: 183
In This Issue:
[AR] Re: DC-X anniversary
[AR] Re: DC-X anniversary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: James Fackert <jimfackert@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2018 14:06:30 -0400
Subject: [AR] Re: DC-X anniversary
Is SpaceX falcon 9 block 5 not the very successful child of DC-X ?
It just took a few years for faster-than- real-time modeling and predictive
control proc and sensors to make the concept practical .
Pioneers, they were.
Is anyone from dcx project working at SpaceX?
jim fackert
On Sun, Aug 19, 2018, 1:07 AM FreeLists Mailing List Manager <
ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
arocket Digest Sat, 18 Aug 2018 Volume: 06 Issue: 182
In This Issue:
[AR] an anniversary
[AR] Re: an anniversary
[AR] Re: an anniversary
[AR] Re: an anniversary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2018 19:45:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [AR] an anniversary
25 years ago today, DC-X flew for the first time. Alas, our optimistic
hopes then for fundamental change in space launch have not come true... at
least not yet.
Henry
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2018 17:00:32 -0700
From: Rand Simberg <simberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [AR] Re: an anniversary
I remember driving out from LA to see it. Stayed in a ten-buck motel in
Deming. Hard to believe it's been five years since the twentieth and the
commemoration at Spaceport America, and in Alamagordo. We've lost Bill
Gaubatz since the. I'm fortunate that he signed my DC-X model (as well
as Jess). Wonder how many others we've lost since then? They paved the
way for first Masten and Armadillo, then SpaceX and Blue Origin.
On 2018-08-18 16:45, Henry Spencer wrote:
25 years ago today, DC-X flew for the first time. Alas, our
optimistic hopes then for fundamental change in space launch have not
come true... at least not yet.
Henry
------------------------------
Subject: [AR] Re: an anniversary
From: Ben Reytblat <b.reytblat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2018 20:36:32 -0400
And Rotary Rocket and Aleta Jackson.
I'd count Xcor in there too. Although they were not VTVL, some of the
people there came from DC-X, by way of RR.
Ben
On 08/18/2018 08:00 PM, Rand Simberg wrote:
I remember driving out from LA to see it. Stayed in a ten-buck motel
in Deming. Hard to believe it's been five years since the twentieth
and the commemoration at Spaceport America, and in Alamagordo. We've
lost Bill Gaubatz since the. I'm fortunate that he signed my DC-X
model (as well as Jess). Wonder how many others we've lost since then?
They paved the way for first Masten and Armadillo, then SpaceX and
Blue Origin.
On 2018-08-18 16:45, Henry Spencer wrote:
25 years ago today, DC-X flew for the first time. Alas, our
optimistic hopes then for fundamental change in space launch have not
come true... at least not yet.
Henry
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2018 17:49:35 -0700
From: Rand Simberg <simberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [AR] Re: an anniversary
Gary and Aleta were into VTVL before DC-X. They were part of an
organization that was the inspiration for it.
On 2018-08-18 17:36, Ben Reytblat wrote:
And Rotary Rocket and Aleta Jackson.
I'd count Xcor in there too. Although they were not VTVL, some of the
people there came from DC-X, by way of RR.
Ben
On 08/18/2018 08:00 PM, Rand Simberg wrote:
I remember driving out from LA to see it. Stayed in a ten-buck motel
in Deming. Hard to believe it's been five years since the twentieth
and the commemoration at Spaceport America, and in Alamagordo. We've
lost Bill Gaubatz since the. I'm fortunate that he signed my DC-X
model (as well as Jess). Wonder how many others we've lost since
then? They paved the way for first Masten and Armadillo, then SpaceX
and Blue Origin.
On 2018-08-18 16:45, Henry Spencer wrote:
25 years ago today, DC-X flew for the first time. Alas, our
optimistic hopes then for fundamental change in space launch have
not
come true... at least not yet.
Henry
------------------------------
End of arocket Digest V6 #182
*****************************
Is SpaceX falcon 9 block 5 not the very successful child of DC-X ?Only in a small way. Being able to reuse the first stage (say) a dozen
It just took a few years for faster-than-real-time modeling and predictive
control proc and sensors to make the concept practical .
Pioneers, they were.
Is anyone from dcx project working at SpaceX?