By deciding on the solid-fueled Ariane 6, ESA is, unwittingly, betting on SpaceX to fail on reusability. For if SpaceX succeeds then the solid-fueled Ariane 6 becomes obsolete, with billions of dollars and years wasted. ESA would then have to start all over again to develop a liquid-fueled version which can be made reusable. Musk lays out plans for reusability of the Falcon 9 rocket. October 3, 2013 by Yves-A. Grondin “The most important thing is that we now believe we have all the pieces of the puzzle (for recovery). If you take the Grasshopper tests, where we were able to do a precision takeoff and landing of a Falcon 9 first stage and you combine it with the results from this flight where we were able to successfully transition from vacuum to hypersonic, through supersonic, through transonic and light the engines all the way through and control the stage all the way through. “We have all the pieces necessary to achieve a full recovery of the boost stage.” nasaspaceflight/2013/10/musk-plans-reusability-falcon-9-rocket/ I think its a bad bet on ESAs part. Bob Clark C.f., exoscientist.blogspot/2013/05/on-lasting-importance-of-spacex.html
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 11:47:39 +0000
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