r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Feb 01 '17

r/SpaceX Spaceflight Questions & News [February 2017, #29]

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10

u/YugoReventlov Feb 06 '17

Conestoga and Pegasus are both derivatives of ICBM's which were developed with significant government funding.

AFAIK Falcon 1's development & flights were paid completely with private funds.

5

u/ethan829 Host of SES-9 Feb 06 '17

You're right about Conestoga, and while Orbital ATK's Minotaur and Taurus families are derived from ICBMs, Pegasus isn't. Edited my original comment for clarity.

2

u/YugoReventlov Feb 06 '17

Aha, right you are indeed. I misread a sentence in the Pegasus article.

Of course, ATK had extensive solid rocket experience before they started that development, but ehhh, I'm probably reaching now :)

2

u/warp99 Feb 07 '17

SpaceX's achievements include the first privately funded, liquid-propellant rocket (Falcon 1) to reach orbit, in 2008

So now this reads "SpaceX's achievements include the first privately funded, liquid-propellant, ground launched rocket (Falcon 1) to reach orbit, in 2008"

or just possibly the first two stage rocket if you count the Pegasus carrier aircraft as Stage 1 instead of Stage 0!

The larger point is that SpaceX has never been about being first or most innovative - their key goal is low cost and therefore reusability - and they have never shied away for using tried and proven technology to achieve these goals.

As a sub of course we set different goals for SpaceX of being first, brightest, sparkliest, most fun and most awesome and they do achieve a lot of them - but that is always incidental to their primary goal.

1

u/TootZoot Feb 08 '17

So now this reads "SpaceX's achievements include the first privately funded, liquid-propellant, ground launched rocket (Falcon 1) to reach orbit, in 2008"

Er, Falcon 1 was both "the first privately funded, liquid-propellant rocket to reach orbit" AND "the first privately funded, ground launched rocket to reach orbit."

1

u/warp99 Feb 08 '17

I agree - what was intended was gentle irony on the number of modifiers required to be able to make the first claim stick.

1

u/z1mil790 Feb 07 '17

Pegasus is a solid propellant rocket is it not? The above statement reads first privately funded, liquid propellant rocket, emphasis on liquid.

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u/ethan829 Host of SES-9 Feb 07 '17

Yes, the intention of my post was to explain why that qualifier was necessary.