Discussion Reusable Falcon Heavy.

RGClark

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This video was released in January, but I just saw it:

Falcon Heavy | Flight Animation - YouTube

It shows a reusable version, the 3 cores at least, of the Falcon Heavy.

To estimate how much the cost to orbit can be reduced, SpaceX has quoted a price of $125 million for the Falcon Heavy. Elon Musk has also said the cost of the F9 is about 3/4ths first stage and 1/4 upper stage.
Then to find an estimate for the price of a core on the FH solve:

(3 + 1/3)X =$125,000,000, or X = $125,000,000/(3 + 1/3) = $37,500,000. And the cost of the upper stage would 1/3rd of this to be $12,500,000.

On an "Ask Me Anything" Reddit, Elon suggested the Merlin 1D can do 40 reuses:

Elon Musk
reddit AMA - January 2015
http://interviewly.com/i/elon-musk-jan-2015-reddit

Then the cost for the Falcon Heavy using the 3 cores for 40 uses and the upper stage for 1 use would be:

3*37,500,000/40 + 12,500,000 = $15,300,000. And the cost per kilo for the 53,000 kg payload cross-feed version would be 15,300,000/53,000 = $290 per kilo.

Ooops! Forgot to include the fact the reusability will reduce the payload to orbit. But considering the upgrades will increase the payload, the price per kilo might be about the same anyway.

Bob Clark
 
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