Re: Could Falcon 9 compete with the Stick?

Rand Simberg wrote:
> On 17 Sep 2005 17:26:56 -0700, in a place far, far away, "Ed Kyle"
> <edkyle99@xxxxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
> way as to indicate that:
>
> >
> >Rand Simberg wrote:
> >> On 8 Sep 2005 17:23:06 -0700, in a place far, far away, "Ed Kyle"
> >> <edkyle99@xxxxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
> >> way as to indicate that:
> >>
> >> >I don't believe the numbers. The going rate these
> >> >days for U.S. launchers is about $10-13K per kg to
> >> >LEO. Mr. Musk claims he has a business case for
> >> >$3K per kg. I could imagine that it might be
> >> >possible for a newbie to march into the space
> >> >business with a fresh concept and undercut the
> >> >old-line competition, but never by this much. It
> >> >just doesn't seem believable to me.
> >>
> >> Why not?
> >
> >1) If it were that easy, some one would have done it
> >already by now.
>
> Ahhh..another naif.

Please then, Rand, explain to me how the inventors
and investors from the same land that created and
made billions off of the Personal Computer, the
Internet, the Cellular Telephone, the IPod, the
Pocket Fisherman, the Sport Utility Vehicle, the Big
Mac, etc and etc, could not after almost 50 years have
figured out how to launch stuff into low earth orbit
for Less Than the Going Rate. Please tell me why no
one in Europe or the Far East or Eurasia has been
able to do it either - all of the greatest minds and
the most determined engineers and the sharpest
managers and the most nimble capitalists, etc.

Please don't tell me how it can be done, because
there are plenty of armchair inventors who've thought
up countless ways to solve the problem and have
patents to prove it. But these folks have never
made a dime from their ideas. They've never "bent
metal" and I suspect never will.

What I want to know why no one *has* done it in all
this time - the same time span during which all of
the above ideas *have* been exploited.

- Ed Kyle

.

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