SpaceX has the world's lowest launch cost at $2300, and they lead the world for material launched to orbit.
SpaceX pioneered the methane engine, which has a higher exhaust speed (3.7 km/s) than traditional
kerosene engines (3.1 km/s). The SpaceX methane engine also has a mighty thrust/weight of 200, the highest
of any rocket. This means fewer engines are needed, saving on cost.
SpaceX pioneered recycling the engines in the first rocket. The engines are 35%
of the rocket cost and hence worth saving.
SpaceX once teamed up with Stratolaunch to do air launch, but then SpaceX backed out. Stratolaunch has yet to
produce a working launch platform.
Payload launched in 2020, in tons.
America SpaceX 286
China CNSA 242
America NASA 103
Russia Roscosmos 80
Europe ESA 27
Japan JAXA 8
America Orbital 7
India ISRO 2
Canada CSA 1
America Rocket Lab .7
America Blue Origin 0
America Stratolaunch 0
SpaceX pioneered the methane engine, which has a higher exhaust speed than
traditional kerosene engines. SpaceX methane engines also have a mighty
power/mass ratio than kerosene engines, and they're cheaper than the
competition's engines.
The fuel with the highest exhaust speed is hyrogen, but you can't use it for the first stage because hydrogen's
density is too low. Also, hydrogen is a challenge because it has to be cooled to 20 Kelvin to liquefy. The
exhaust speed for various fuels is, in km/s:
Hydrogen + Oxygen 4.4
Methane + Oxygen 3.7
Kerosene + Oxygen 3.1
Solid fuel 2.7
For the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the engines are 35% of the cost and are hence worth saving.
SpaceX pioneered recycling the first rocket stage. For a Falcon 9 rocket,
Payload to LEO = 22800 kg
Launch cost = 52 Million $
Launch cost/kg = 2280 $/kg
Number of engines = 9
Cost per engine = .2 Million $
Total engine cost = 18 Million $
Engine cost fraction= .35
Historically, transport is a big deal. Railroads opened up the American frontier and there was a race to
build rail lines. The future will see a race to launch material to orbit. The timeline of transport is:
1499 Sea route connecting Europe to India discovered, by going around Africa (Vasco da Gama)
1838 Steam-powered ships
1869 Transcontinental railroad
1887 Gasoline cars are first commercialized (Karl Benz)
1903 First aircraft built by the Wright Brothers
1955 Fission thermal rocket developed
1962 First communications satellite
1969 Man on the moon
Article on astronautics:
https://www.jaymaron.com/astronautics.htmlSpaceX:
https://www.jaymaron.com/astronautics.html#spacex
