But who will get to 100 launches first? 1000? Saturn V was in one way a great success that will be remembered for all of history. But in another it was a failure due to your exact statement. It only launched 13 times due to being so expensive as to just not be feasible.

▲

fluoridation 5 days ago | parent [-]

Neither will.

>It only launched 13 times due to being so expensive as to just not be feasible.

"There aren't many uses for such a gigantic rocket. Let's make an even bigger one and hope it works out!"

▲

terminalshort 5 days ago | parent [-]

Actually, "let's build a cheaper one and hope it works out" is the design philosophy here, and it's a very effective one across pretty much all domains. The fact that it's bigger too is mostly incidental to its economic case. You think we would have stopped at Apollo 17 if the same Saturn V was capable of flying Apollo 18 - 30?

	▲	anonymars 5 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Hadn't we already built the Saturn V for Apollo 18, 19, and 20?
	▲	5 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[deleted]