Gladly;

It *doesn’t* because it hasn’t *flown yet.* It has **projected** launch costs, which is not the same thing.

Actually, this is better; spend a couple hours playing the free demo. You’ll learn a lot.

Okay, now you’re being cute! Did you see me mention anywhere the *financial* cost of *fuel?* I spelled out exactly where the ‘cost’ came from, the increase in **mass.** More mass means more fuel and more thrust necessary to move it, and since **fuel** ALSO HAS MASS and TAKES UP SPACE (two important properties of…

Okay, but I notice another potential math error here; the Shuttle program went through four, almost five decades from inception to end-of-flight. Are your estimates actually accounting for inflation? Or are you comparing 70's era launch estimates to 2000's era final pricetags? There was significant inflation during…

Musk has been pushing hard, and I really do want every one of his wildest proposals to succeed. SpaceX is surely in a better position than Blue Origin at the moment (and it chaps my ass every time someone says ‘well, Blue Origin already did that’ when SpaceX lands a booster—**suboribital** versus **orbital,** njub!),…

Point of interest; part of the reason the start-up cost jumped is because Obama cut the SLS/Orion projects early in his first term. The Shuttle SRBs and much of the Shuttle main fuel tank manufacturing was meant to carry over into SLS to reduce costs, but it took too long between Shuttle end-of-service and SLS…

So, here’s the breakdown—greater payload mass requires more fuel. More fuel requires more fuel tank and more plumbing. More fuel tank adds mass, requiring more fuel. The unburnt fuel also adds mass, since it isn’t being used immediately, compounding the mass problem. Once mass becomes greater than the low-altitude…

Weird, it’s almost like I already compared the lift capacities of Ariane 6 and New Glenn in my first reply. The one where I said their lift capacities were lower? I’m also not entirely sure where you’re getting your launch cost estimates; SLS’s original target was $500mil. Still expensive, yes, without question, and…

I don’t think you know how math works.

Well no kidding, huh? Fundamental fact of rocketry—cost goes up exponentially as payload mass increases, just as fuel economy drops exponentially the faster you drive your car. If launch *cost* were the metric I was using for comparison, I’d have said so. The thing is, until we have an actual construction and/or…

Maybe, but neither Falcon 9 Heavy nor Blue Origin’s currently concept-only New Glenn have any current plans to match the SLS’s lift capacity  (54Mg to LEO and 35-70Mg to LEO, respectively, versus SLS’s projected 70-130Mg to LEO), and ALA’s Delta IV Heavy (29Mg to LEO) and the ESA’s Ariane 6 (11Mg to GTO) aren’t even…

“It appears many can’t deal with losing.”

Show of hands, how many people here were on the ballot? *Voting* for someone that lost isn’t the same thing as ‘losing,’ any more than voting for the morlock that won makes you a ‘winner.’

No, it was definitely an AI. You see a standard AI bounty hunter squawk in the Comms panel just before the POV jumps out, and there is a contact pip on his scope, on his tail, as he jumps out. Solid pip on the contact scope, meaning AI (hollow pips are players). The player IS in a wing with someone, but I didn’t see…

“Of course, I’m not sure you’d find many Trump folk in Portland anyway, but who knows...” You wouldn’t think so, but there were enough supporters that fireworks were going off at various places around the city Tuesday night. And Portland State University has been in the local news a few times throughout the…

“Clinton does not stand with the men and women in our military, Trump does.”

Or, as those in the science biz would say, “citation or it didn’t happen.”

Well, he did put “real” scientists in quotation marks, so he must be referring only to scientists who aren’t actually scientists. So....I agree? Only “real” scientists think there is a debate, while actual non-quotation-mark scientists are in pretty strong agreement internationally.

“Didn’t I just tell you to stop making up animals?!”

Chip: “Whoever you are, you should seriously reconsider your life choices. [...] If this is your job, quit it. If it’s a hobby, find something better to do.”

Chip, whoever you are, you should seriously reconsider your life choices. If this is your job, quit it. If it’s a hobby, find something better to do.

...I watched it on Hulu about an hour ago? Or am I misunderstanding?