5 thoughts on “Expending The Expendables”

  1. “He noted Avio is developing technologies — such as a rocket engine using liquid oxygen and methane propellants — that could support future reusable vehicles. “I think that cadence needs to be rightsized to the size of the market that you can actually reach,” he said, “otherwise, you’re going to do pretty much nothing with it.””

    You don’t do anything with it when it is at the bottom of the sea either and there are cheaper ways to make artificial reefs.

    What he is talking about is unrealized capacity and thinking it is a waste but he will never get the opportunity to use it if it isn’t there.

  2. Serious question, not a rhetorical one: now that re-usable rocket stages are a reality, is there still any realistic use case for expendables, other than for nations that don’t have anything else and in weapon systems which are intended to only ever take a one-way journey to the target?

    1. Missions for which no reusable can cope – such as the recent Europa Clipper launch.

      Of course, Starship, orbital refueling, and the like will deal with this too, soon.

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