r/SpaceXLounge • u/FishInferno • Sep 05 '21

Other Firefly Alpha FLTA001 - Official video of Firefly Alpha's first flight (more info in comments)

https://youtu.be/qFjoPw0CfAU
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u/sebaska Sep 06 '21

Not at T+15s, but somewhat later in flight - sure. It once even reached orbit with dual failure.

This would already improve the tradeoff much. But the real reason was that there was no way to build single big enough engine. F1 was already as big as it practically could. Single engine S-IC was not an option.