Emble12

Emble12 t1_jdec2ks wrote

When you decrease something logarithmically by 10, that’s reducing by an order of magnitude. “Literal” is used because the phrase is often used in a hyperbolic sense. I was specifically referring to the difference between the Shuttle/SLS and Falcon 9.

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Emble12 t1_jaqgyp9 wrote

Falcon 9 second stage isn’t reusable, though there were some early plans to do so. The problem is that the second stage travels to orbit, so it’s an order of magnitude faster and therefore will hit the atmosphere an order of magnitude harder.

So now second stages are typically burnt up in the atmosphere, or stay in orbit depending on launch trajectories.

Dragon is reused, the veteran Endeavour has flown four crews.

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