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Stoke Space


tater

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1 hour ago, tater said:

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/09/stoke-space-hops-its-upper-stage-leaping-toward-a-fully-reusable-rocket/

Berger's article says the goal is 7t to LEO, not sure if that is resuable or expended.

That has to be fully expended who does not make much sense at least not for second stage as its heavier because its designed to be reused likely also much more expensive. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Oh yeah, they're definitely gunning to become a legitimate rival to SpaceX. Orbital refueling? Interplanetary missions? On top of normal satellite operations and even satellite return/reorbit (?), their increased performance to LEO in addition to full reuse means they have a lot of flexibility. 

I'm am really interested in whatever successor to Nova they have in mind, because I don't imagine even Nova will be enough to carve out a decent niche in the launch market. I do  think 3-5 tonnes (whichever is the reused-value) is high enough for plenty of single payloads, and puts them in a good place among the small-sat sector, but it's still just short or too underpowered for many others. Orbital refueling could pick up the slack on some of that though, expend whatever fuel they would've used in landing, and just get it back from a depot in orbit.

Nova will be an incredibly important vehicle to demonstrate their ability and commitment however, so for now, I'm very much looking forward to seeing development unfold. I can't wait to see their tests on the first stage engine.

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32 minutes ago, SunlitZelkova said:

I just hope they don’t end up like Relativity, that was going to challenge Starship but ended up with a Falcon 9 clone…

I think that's less of a risk given they're starting with the 2nd stage and the associated systems to reuse it.

And to be fair, I think there's still a path for Terran R to become fully reusable, it's more capable than F9R, and with a similar upgrade path, they could create the margins needed to fully reuse it.

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21 hours ago, Spaceception said:

Oh yeah, they're definitely gunning to become a legitimate rival to SpaceX. Orbital refueling? Interplanetary missions? On top of normal satellite operations and even satellite return/reorbit (?), their increased performance to LEO in addition to full reuse means they have a lot of flexibility. 

I'm am really interested in whatever successor to Nova they have in mind, because I don't imagine even Nova will be enough to carve out a decent niche in the launch market. I do  think 3-5 tonnes (whichever is the reused-value) is high enough for plenty of single payloads, and puts them in a good place among the small-sat sector, but it's still just short or too underpowered for many others. Orbital refueling could pick up the slack on some of that though, expend whatever fuel they would've used in landing, and just get it back from a depot in orbit.

Nova will be an incredibly important vehicle to demonstrate their ability and commitment however, so for now, I'm very much looking forward to seeing development unfold. I can't wait to see their tests on the first stage engine.

Then is  3-5 ton to leo small-sat?  More so if they can refuel in orbit, liked how the tanker had an small nosecone a lot like an dragon capsule as it would just need the refueling docking ports. 
And to answer my on question 3-5 ton is small-sat's once Starship is fully operational :) 
But this looks much cheaper to launch than a Starship, on the other hand I assume a ship with enough fine control to dock would require extra systems not used in second stages as weight is valuable. 

 

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1 hour ago, magnemoe said:

Then is  3-5 ton to leo small-sat?  More so if they can refuel in orbit, liked how the tanker had an small nosecone a lot like an dragon capsule as it would just need the refueling docking ports. 
And to answer my on question 3-5 ton is small-sat's once Starship is fully operational :) 
But this looks much cheaper to launch than a Starship, on the other hand I assume a ship with enough fine control to dock would require extra systems not used in second stages as weight is valuable. 

 

Well, 3-5 tonnes is well within medium lift. Stoke can handle all small payloads, and a fraction of medium payloads. I was just saying that they have more than enough capacity to handle anything in the smallsat sector, even including limited rideshare, and can take up the smaller end of medium payloads, but not the middle/upper end, I suppose I wasn't very clear.

It will be interesting to see how the economics of reuse play out across a range of differently sized vehicles.  SpaceX is betting that scaling up will work in their favor, while Stoke is going in the opposite direction (at least for now). New Glenn, if Jarvis works out, and possibly Terran R, will show how Medium/Heavy lift does. And from there, we'll find out the customer/internal cost of launch, overall turnaround/launch rate, individual vehicle turnaround/launch rate, and cost per kg, I wonder if we'll see the aerospace industry begin to converge on designs in the 2030s to the most effective one. With the possible exception of SpaceX, who will try to stick to Starship for Mars.

Edited by Spaceception
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Advertising the ability to grab a satellite and move it to a different orbit is pretty neat, although it's hard to come up with circumstances where that would be necessary.

Orbit refueling is of course badass.

And landing on the moon is sweet. I really want some dry mass and specific impulse data.

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3 minutes ago, Pthigrivi said:

Anyone else googling international law on stealing a rival power's spy satellite? 

 

As the obvious one, and that all thought of the wale mouth starship. 
Also stoke space and Spacex is private so the world you are looking at is privateer. 
Downside is that this require you to be at war with the other side and if the other side has an significant orbital presence they also has an high numbers of nukes. 
Still an cool idea. More practical with an dead satellite I think, who makes it more like salvage. 

Friend  as an teen was out on an boat with his friends then they spotted an large sailboat at an weird place as in way to shallow. None aboard so they took it under tow and returned it to an marina. 
He got $3000 for his part who is serious money as an young teen 30 years ago. He bought an scooter and an PC for it. 

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  • 1 month later...

I wonder how far along engine dev is. I bet we could see a WDR of sorts for the first stage tank sometime in early 2024. Out of all other upcoming rockets, Nova is the one I'm most excited to see debut.

Reading the other comments, it might not be the first stage engines, but part of the engine ring for the second stage. I'm willing to bet we'll see components testing in 2024 though, they seem to be moving fast enough.

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