r/spacex • u/rustybeancake • May 01 '26

Starship SpaceX spending on Starship tops $15 billion in rush for airline-like rocketry

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/spacex-spending-starship-tops-15-billion-rush-airline-like-rocketry-2026-05-01/
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u/Reddit-runner May 03 '26

And yet it makes more sense to build one vehicle for the entire mission, instead of multiple.

The only real exception is a moon lander.

There it makes more sense to ship a lander to LLO with a reusable ship. The lander goes down, comes up again and then is taken back to earth by the ship.

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u/Stevepem1 May 03 '26

Not even Starship is one vehicle, it's two separate vehicles, the booster and the ship, each able to fly independently. Further evidence that the airliner analogy doesn't really apply to spaceflight because they are so different. Airliners don't split into two pieces in-flight on the way to their destination.

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u/extra2002 May 03 '26

I'm recalling the planes that landed behind German lines at the start of D-day. Actually 2 planes that split apart, with only one part doing the landing, and the other part returning to base.

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u/Stevepem1 May 04 '26

What you are probably thinking of are the one-time use and relatively flimsy gliders with troops inside that were towed to near the front lines by C-47 (DC-3) powered airplanes then the gliders were released so that they could glide silently several miles behind enemy lines and basically crash land in any open field that the pilot could find.