nilstycho

O algorithm, algorithm! all men call thee fickle.

I think that Centaur was sent into solar orbit.

I think there are only two US rocket stages in LEO that were launched in the past 21 months:

1. 2024-125H — Firefly Alpha FLTA005 Stage 2, launching demo cubesats for NASA

2. 2025-077C — Orbital Minotaur IV (8) Stage 4 (Orion 38), launching a few spy satellites

Fun fact: the first stage of the latter rocket was manufactured in 1966.

“The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.”

Do you have any tips for how to work on this with kids?

> Second, Starship is much more expensive for each launch attempt than Falcon 9 ever was.

The launch cost of a Starship today is high, especially if you include development costs, but Musk's goal is a marginal launch cost of ~$1M. A Falcon 9's launch price is ~$70M; Musk claims a "best case" marginal Falcon 9 launch costs ~$15M.