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It won't be just fuel cost - personnel, recertifying/rehabbing the reusable equipment, etc. Cheaper, but likely not $200k by a long shot.



Of course not. But those are the primary costs of launch. Coming to think of it, fuel costs are probably smaller than dev and personnel costs. Nonetheless, it'll be a magnitude smaller than current launch prices. A typical series A round should allow startups to launch their own vehicles which is currently completely out of reach..


Fuel is only something like 2 or 3% of the cost of a typical launch.


I think that's the OPs point -- recoverable gear could potentially make fuel a limiting factor. (Although I don't know if this is realistic: there must be a lot of personell and equipment involved with refitting and firing a rocket into orbit, even if the rocket itself is free.)




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