Posted on 10/29/2018 11:38:37 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
If SpaceX gets lucky the BFR development costs could come in at the $2 billion low-end estimate. Elon Musk had estimated that it would cost $2 billion to 10 billion to develop. A few more critical successes over the next year will enable SpaceX to solidify the finances and funding for the BFR. The needed critical successes are the NASA crewed launch certification in mid-2019 and successful Falcon Heavy launches in 2019.
SpaceX has pre-sold a moon orbit tourist flight to a Japanese billionaire. This was likely for $500 to $800 million.
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy already has up to seven launches lined up. Commercial and government launch buyers are seeing the value in using the larger rocket to directly place satellites in geosynchronous orbit. Continued launch success in 2019 could bring the Falcon Heavy to five or six launches per year.
SpaceX should become certified for NASA crewed launches in mid-2019. SpaceX will make about $300 million for each of those launches.
The $2 billion lowball estimate for the BFR development must includeIf the SpaceX BFR succeeds on its first orbital like the SpaceX Falcon Heavy, then the cost of BFR development will be in the $2 billion to $2.5 billion range.
- completing the raptor engine
- building one full BFR rocket
- preparing the test launch site
- all sub-orbital testing
- preparing the launch site and landing sites
- a successful 18-24 month orbital testing program
Costs would go up if there were challenges completing the final design and construction of the BFR or in the testing phases.
SpaceX is arranging a $500 million loan via Goldman Sachs. SpaceX could afford another $2 billion in loans with firm Falcon Heavy revenue and the NASA crewed launch revenue.
(Excerpt) Read more at nextbigfuture.com ...
Over extended periods of time and sufficient force all planetary materials, even solid-seeming rock will act like a liquid. Once a body gets to a certain size it is always spherical due to gravity.
Viewed from ~250,000 miles the moon behaves exactly the same as if it were made out of water. This is the reason for its spherical shape.
The Earth is even larger and is also spherical. The surface of the ocean is not flat, it is spherical. If this were not true, one could see all the way to England by climbing up onto the roof of a house on the New Jersey shore. Clearly not the case.
CurlyDave,
Apparently, you are not aware of the vanishing point in visual perspective.
At some point of distance, the vanishing point is reached.
Things become too small for you to be able to see them.
Look it up. “Vanishing point”
An Israeli non-profit has February 2019 as a launch date aboard the Falcon Heavy.
SpaceIL Presents: The Mission
So far he's built a successful launch business, including building the booster from scratch, while you've done nothing of the kind. He's building cars that run on batteries and sell for premium prices, and been so good at that the subsidies are phasing out (as originally planned), while you've snarked on the internet.
The original plan was for the Japanese billionnaire and one companion to orbit the Moon in a Dragon capsule, launched on a Falcon Heavy. Now he'll take more people along aboard the BFR, which hasn't been completed yet.
If memory serves, it is in orbit around the Sun, will settle in somewhere by the main belt asteroids.
:^D
Show me the curve.
Oh, wait...
You can’t.
It does not exist.
You've already closed your mind to anything I might show you.
Are the moon and other planets flat too?
Nonsense! I see only one turtle; everybody knows It’s Turtles All The Way Down.
Big Falcon Rocket, but that’s the G-rated version.
Actually, he’s used an awful lot of your money to do that with... 4+ billion in taxpayer subsidies. I’m pretty sure lots of entrepreneurs could accomplish a lot with that much capital and no need to repay it back... Add in a bunch of stockholders and you have yourself a pyramid. They’re checking production figures and I’m sure they’ll determine the worst... Musk has been stringing many people along for a very long and much like a pied piper... And that story always ends badly.
It is convenient to its perpetrators in that it allows them to steal taxpayer money while keeping the taxpayer in the dark; even approving of the theft - all in the name of space.
Really? Let's look at the words of The Venerable Bede:
"We call the earth a globe, not as if the shape of a sphere were expressed in the diversity of plains and mountains, but because, if all things are included in the outline, the earth's circumference will represent the figure of a perfect globe... For truly it is an orb placed in the centre of the universe; in its width it is like a circle, and not circular like a shield but rather like a ball, and it extends from its centre with perfect roundness on all sides."
De temporum ratione (The Reckoning of Time), 725 CE
Was an 8th Century English monk in on stealing taxpayer money, too?
Water is not flat on the grand scale - it follows the curve of the earth.
Here's a Christian source, taken from a Creationist website: perhaps you'll take it all in. The second link is the best, though the first gives a good overview.
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.