The Science & Economics of Rocket Reusability
It all begins with an idea.
First stage of the Falcon 9 rocket landing at sea during the CRS-19 mission Source: SpaceX Flickr
June 21st, 2020
For over 60 years, spaceflight has more or less been an incredibly expensive ordeal. The Apollo program that saw 12 American astronauts land on the Moon between 1969 and 1972 costed an eye-watering $283 billion USD in 2019 dollars, and given there were 14 manned and unmanned missions that were launched during that period, the average flight cost for each mission was roughly $20 billion. This was enormously expensive especially considering NASA’s entire budget in 2019 was only a little over $21 billion.
The Apollo program, while being one of the most expensive human endeavor in history, is by no means the exception in terms of cost. Spaceflight remains incredibly expensive to this day and out of reach for most ordinary citizens and corporations. Cost per kilogram is the most common metric measuring the affordability of a launch vehicle, and today’s cost per kilogram to orbit for most rockets are in the tens of thousands of dollars. With such high costs, one would need over $11,500 to launch a Macbook Pro to orbit on the Ariane 5, one of the most prolific European rockets in service today.
Cost per kilogram for various rockets assuming maximum capacity Source: CB Insights
With such exorbitant launch costs, it is easy to understand why the space industry has traditionally been restricted to governments and major defense contractors.