Posted on 01/07/2025 2:44:04 PM PST by mowowie
In the most recent SpaceX Starship presentation, Elon Musk stated that the SpaceX Starship can become lower cost than airplanes for long haul cargo delivery. I have some detailed calculations. Starship will double the payload capacity. Full fueling costs are about the same for the 1200 tons of fuel for Starship versus 50,000 gallons of jet fuel for a long-range cargo plane for each flight. However, twice payload means half the cost. Non-fuel costs for the vehicles and the frequency of flights are hugely in Starship favor. Starship should have twice the payload.
Starship starts off at half of the loaded cost per flight and four times cheaper per ton of payload and then will proceed to be ten to fifteen times cheaper. Plus they will have some initial new no competition markets for ultra-fast delivery.
(Excerpt) Read more at nextbigfuture.com ...
It's seems that Starship may revolutionize travel on this planet for a fraction of the time and cost of typical air travel.
Flight 7 is scheduled for this Friday at 5pm est
Once you have a rocket in space, transportation is cheap.
“ May a million libel suits bloom in the spring....”
I can see SpaceX Rockets taking off from my house, at least the path they’re taking. It is part of the joy of living in red state Florida.
Cool concept...but let’s not get out over our skis.
The Starship program is a looong way from having multiple facilities around the globe for launch, catch, assembly, refueling, maintenance, inspection, security...not to mention cargo handling.
One will eventually crash and then general safety considerations will become paramount.
I probably should have said the Falcom program rather than Starship but the same considertions apply.
One would have to move a tremendous amount of tonnage to justify the expense. The PRIVATE ENTERPRISE expense, not taxpayer expense.
Is there thoughts of doing this w/ cargo, not passengers? That way no one dies.
Cool...I want my Amazon deliveries coming down in my front yard via rocket! To heck with those noisy drones.
1200 TONS of fuel? Wait until the greenies put the pencil to that. How many Priuses would that power for a decade?
Just 30 years ago there was maybe ONE Amazon fulfillment center. As of 2024, there are 175 Amazon fulfillment centers around the world.
Are we talking suborbital hops?
CC
If SpaceX doesn’t need to transport humans (and thus not need complex systems to ensure human comfort and survival) it can easily make costs much lower than a 787
We will soon find the same is true for military aircraft and China and others may be far ahead of us on this score.
Yeah . . I’m thinking of building my own launch tower with “chopsticks” to capture the rocket upon landing. I’ll be the first one in my trailer park to have one, I’m sure.
yes, supposedly the super heavy booster is not needed
1,000 people per rocket?
I am sure there are a lot of people who want to get to Europe quickly. I am not one of them.
The issue with fast delivery of goods is where is he going to land…and then getting the return rocket back home.
While, I dont think we will see this in the next 20 years…I love the thinking that goes into it.
It is a very interesting concept.
AS it is a system in development, we do not know what the risks are, compared to a regular aircraft.
There are so many differences, it is very hard to know.
Lots of interesting military applications. Getting the vehicle back would be the difficult part.
since it seems “suborbital hops” might be the thing, rail launches, as once depicted in a ‘60’s gerry anderson show, and since picked up in a NASA cartoon, might work better than vertical launch.
Or ....somehow really come out with Commando Cody’ssleek rocket ...but get rid of those Steelcase rolling office chairs!!
I don’t think landing rockets in (and launching from) Super Center parking lots is going to happen. :) Technical considerations aside, the neighbors would not take kindly to a huge rocket gyroing in.
But all new systems begin with someone scheming it out, so in a generation...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.