Falcon 9

“So basically, SpaceX has developed a new V-III satellite that has 10 X the bandwidth of its V-II satellite. So currently the Starlink network is powered by V-II satellites They deploy them on the Falcon nine rocket, and they launch about 27 satellites per laun…”

“This can take a large satellite, like a four ton satellite from low earth orbit at a couple hundred miles up to geosynchronous orbit at 22,000 miles. That's so basically escaping most of the gravity well over very high energy transfer. It can take, you know, f…”

“My, probably my proudest development was the Merlin engine, which is currently flying on Falcon nine, the most reliable rocket engine ever developed, and also the highest thrust of weight of any rocket engine ever developed.”

“A Falcon nine goes up every two to three days. Competitors manage single digit launches per year. The same boosters have been reused 20 times each.”

“A NASA study found SpaceX developed Falcon nine for roughly four hundred and forty million. They estimated the same work with traditional contractors would have cost three to 10 times that amount.”

“Building 40 identical Falcon nines annually creates automotive style learning curves that are impossible in custom aerospace.”

“If making 40 rockets creates a manufacturing learning curve, flying the same rocket 20 times creates an operational learning curve that's even steeper.”

“The crucial distinction is between development and operations. SpaceX runs both, but with completely different risk profiles. So for the Dragon, it carries crew. It can never fail. So there's large margins of safety, there's exhaustive testing, there's conserv…”

“Falcon nine's grid fins were originally designed to fold like traditional aerospace grid fins. The folding mechanism reduced drag during ascent, which seemed obviously necessary. SpaceX questioned whether it was worth the mass and complexity. Simulations showe…”

“Falcon nine, probably not. I mean, you need Starship where your upper stage you're intending to recover.”

“In twenty-twenty, that we were at the turning point where they started to reuse the Falcon nine rockets, and we went from being able to launch maybe once a month to about once a week.”

“If you look at the, you know, sort of Chinese rockets, they look a hell of a lot like the Falcon nines. And they're still not landing.”

“The Falcon nine. Mass to useful orbit is 17 metric tons, and the variable cost that, you know, I have seen Elon tweet about is somewhere around fifteen million dollars.”