Hacker News Reader

Comment by Daho0n | Hacker News Reader

They really didn't. SpaceX is not cheaper than the shuttle no matter how many times it gets repeated. That SpaceX fudges the numbers so it is hard to compare doesn't make it true. In reality SpaceX is more expensive than not only the shuttle but also their own projections.

Here's a breakdown: https://youtu.be/4TxkE_oYrjU

View on HN

> Here's a breakdown: https://youtu.be/4TxkE_oYrjU

I watched the first 90 seconds of this. On the cost of re-usability of a falcon 9 point, the figures are shown as from Wikipedia.

So 1) not a primary source. 2) fails to calculate the percentage correctly between $62m and $50m as "around 10%". It's almost 20% on those figures. 3) and most importantly, those numbers are the cost to the customer, not SpaceX's internal cost. As they have no current competition in rocket re-usability, they are able to recoup the R&D cost for developing this technology.

I don't think I'll bother watching the rest of the video.

Yeah, they are certainly not launching so many Starlinks at the same price they charge to the customers. A very big benefit having your own partially reusable rocket (especially as long as no one other has one yet).

you're wrong. That video is a bunch of crud

And I'm sure you believe that US and foreign competitors of SpaceX who says the same thing are just spewing PR, right? It was a random video. The message is not wrong. Being snippy doesn't change facts.

The Thunderf00t video is wrong, see my video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36o4UrS9OS4

Reply on news.ycombinator.com