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Comment by teravor | original | SpaceX catches the Starship to end Flight 15
[−]teravor · 2026-11-15 Sun 00:02 UTC · link
will scaling the size of the rocket continue to be the way to go? will doing a three stage setup make sense?
[−]papercrane · 2026-11-15 Sun 00:08 UTC · link
The tyranny of the rocket equation says no, probably not. As you add mass the amount of fuel you need goes up exponentially.
[−]dopa42365 · 2026-11-15 Sun 00:31 UTC · link
Fuel costs practically nothing, a tiny percentage of the total launch cost. At some point an additional 1000 tons of liquid oxygen only sets you back $250k. Kerosene or LNG is cheap too. At the very least your booster and first stage fuel cost is more or less irrelevant, make them as simple and big as possible. Just gotta avoid hydrogen and specialty gases.
[−]trollbridge · 2026-11-15 Sun 01:28 UTC · link
I don't think they were talking about dollar cost but rather mass ratio cost.