Would SpaceX ever sell it's Rocket engines for other customers?

[rtxoff]

Well as far as i can imagine what Musk would do i'd say he will do whatever it is necessary to some day reach his long term goal of reaching Mars. If selling Merlin engines will get him closer to that goal then he certainly would do it. However i don't think that there is interest in the Merlin engines from the other companies.

[wumpus]

There was some talk about a number of projects for some lunar xprize. One falcon9 was way out of the budget for such things but by pooling their money they could buy one together. Presumably, one team could do well enough on a Falcon[1] rocket, but they don't sell those anymore. I strongly suspect that part of the reason that they don't sell it is that much of the tooling no longer exists (modified for merlin 1.2 or so). Building a merlin .9 (or whatever powered the original falcon) may be essentially impossible [read more expensive than a full falcon9] and there is likely no guarantee that a merlin 1.2 can launch a falcon 1 (consider that the difference between the last failure and first success was changing the time between separation and ignition, the details would likely be disastrous).

Then there is that whole issue about asking a company that exists to go forward to Mars to take a number of steps backward for a very small budget.

[Kryten]

There was some talk about a number of projects for some lunar xprize. One falcon9 was way out of the budget for such things but by pooling their money they could buy one together.

That was astrobiotic, they're still trying to do that. TeamIL have bought a slot on a separate rideshare to SSO set up by Spaceflight, and have negotiated with them and SpX to boost towards TLI with remaining propellant after the SSO payloads separate; I'm pretty sure the agreement prevents other people buying moon slots on the same flight.

I strongly suspect that part of the reason that they don't sell it is that much of the tooling no longer exists (modified for merlin 1.2 or so).

Also the tooling for the actual fuselage probably also no longer exists or has been repurposed.

[fredinno]

That's basically the equivalent of a new first stage. Merlin runs a completely different combustion cycle that burns quite less efficiently at higher TWR, so the dimensions of the first stage tankage are all wrong for it. Not to mention the plumbing will be completely different. It would be much, MUCH easier to put a centaur on top of a Falcon 9 first stage.

Rune. Which is basically what your proposal would end up being.

Still, it would still be easier, as there is no need for major infrastructure or tooling changes, like for the Vulcan, to accomodate methane.

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It's been done quite a few times; Titan switched from RP-1/LOX to hypergols with a version of the same engine, energomash have a modified RD-180 that burns methane, KB Khinmash have run their RD-0146 on both methane and hydrogen-but not by anyone in the US, at least recently.

Smaller rockets are still competing directly because of SpaceX plans for dedicated launches for small payloads, the first of which is already being set up.

How? Falcon 9 is OP. Unless it means secondary payloads, which tend to delay launches a lot.

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Its also likely that the buyer would use fewer engines in an smaller rocket and not compete directly with falcon 9.

Business is more cooperative than most people realize, Samsung makes most of the cpu in iPhones for one.

This thread was supposed to mainly be about Atlas V, and possibly a military-competing Antares.

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That was astrobiotic, they're still trying to do that. TeamIL have bought a slot on a separate rideshare to SSO set up by Spaceflight, and have negotiated with them and SpX to boost towards TLI with remaining propellant after the SSO payloads separate; I'm pretty sure the agreement prevents other people buying moon slots on the same flight.

Also the tooling for the actual fuselage probably also no longer exists or has been repurposed.

This is very off topic.

[Kryten]

How? Falcon 9 is OP. Unless it means secondary payloads, which tend to delay launches a lot.

Dedicated rideshare, as is already being done by spaceflight services. With that many payloads, and the number of customers they expect to have, they should be able to swap in customers easy if others get delayed.

[fredinno]

Dedicated rideshare, as is already being done by spaceflight services. With that many payloads, and the number of customers they expect to have, they should be able to swap in customers easy if others get delayed.

Of course, that is why such opportunities are generally becoming less common, forcing the development of dedicated cubesat launchers...

[Kryten]

Of course, that is why such opportunities are generally becoming less common, forcing the development of dedicated cubesat launchers...

Nobody has done a dedicated rideshare flight yet , and secondary opportunity are steadily becoming more common. The people trying to make dedicated smallsat launchers are just responding to the larger market and betting that dedicated rideshare doesn't eat their lunch; we'll see how that goes.

[fredinno]

Nobody has done a dedicated rideshare flight yet , and secondary opportunity are steadily becoming more common.

Not really: http://seradata.com/SSI/2013/09/small-and-sweet-nasa-wants-a-dedicated-launch-vehicle-for-cubesats/

[Kryten]

Not really: http://seradata.com/SSI/2013/09/small-and-sweet-nasa-wants-a-dedicated-launch-vehicle-for-cubesats/

Yes, really. Try looking at the statistics for satellites per year versus launches per year.

[Streetwind]

How do you define "dedicated rideshare flight"? The concept of multiple clients banding together and buying one rocket is perhaps as old as sounding rockets.