SpaceX is superb at reusing boosters, but how about building upper stages?
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/spacex-is-superb-at-reusing-boosters-but-how-about-building-upper-stages/
SpaceX is superb at reusing boosters, but how about building upper stages?
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/spacex-is-superb-at-reusing-boosters-but-how-about-building-upper-stages/
4 Comments
SpaceX builds second stages so fast and they’re beasts of second stages, much larger then what other launchers have.
Same for Blue Origin. Their first stages can only do so much or else they can’t come back to land in the barge.
ULA makes their second stages as small as possible. The first stage does as much of the work as possible. That’s why they don’t hope of landing their first stages.
Always funny to remember that the Falcon second stage is literally better than the Centaur Upper stage.
Better mass fractions, more DV on equal payload, and an actual second stage engine with the thrust necessary to climb into LEO. Atlas Centaur always had to take an insanely lofted trajectory on heavy payloads to give the RL-10 time to speed into orbit before dipping into the atmosphere again. The Merlin Vacum may not be as efficent, but it’ll drop you off in LEO just fine.
And they build them at a rate of one every two to three days.
They make 150 upper stages a year. That’s more than most other rockets in their entire lifespan. I’d say they are pretty good at it, they have plenty of practice.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[C3](/r/Space/comments/1i1ceme/stub/m76sx3q “Last usage”)|[Characteristic Energy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristic_energy) above that required for escape|
|[DoD](/r/Space/comments/1i1ceme/stub/m76raak “Last usage”)|US Department of Defense|
|[HALO](/r/Space/comments/1i1ceme/stub/m76itcn “Last usage”)|Habitation and Logistics Outpost|
|[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1i1ceme/stub/m757jop “Last usage”)|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
| |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
|[PPE](/r/Space/comments/1i1ceme/stub/m76itcn “Last usage”)|Power and Propulsion Element|
|[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1i1ceme/stub/m77vbqx “Last usage”)|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
|[SSME](/r/Space/comments/1i1ceme/stub/m774hp0 “Last usage”)|[Space Shuttle Main Engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_main_engine)|
|[SSTO](/r/Space/comments/1i1ceme/stub/m757l5u “Last usage”)|Single Stage to Orbit|
| |Supersynchronous Transfer Orbit|
|[ULA](/r/Space/comments/1i1ceme/stub/m76raak “Last usage”)|United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture)|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[Raptor](/r/Space/comments/1i1ceme/stub/m76rm16 “Last usage”)|[Methane-fueled rocket engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_(rocket_engine_family)) under development by SpaceX|
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