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well today i was thinking, why nobody do something like the SS-520 but comercial? a small rocket entry dedicated to launch a cubesat, that probably go to have a lot of adventages and probably is realy cost efficient, right now i see arround 30k USD / kg (to LEO) so, if u build the entry rocket for arround 15k, you still have a gain and a good price. Any know why?

Valentino Zaffrani
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  • I think this has been answered before. Small rockets are possible but tend not to be economically viable due to all the fixed costs. it ends up being more efficient cost-wise and industrially to launch several satellites on a rocket that's at least moderately larger such as an electron. – ikrase Dec 09 '20 at 03:21
  • @ikrase yes, well, but the portability (you can launch a SS-520 from a truck), fexibility (depending on the launch angle you will get a greater height of apogee) and simplicity of a litle rocket dont make sense? I mean, right now alot of amateur and small agencies are launching 1U or 2U cubesats (that if u think, is a lot space to carry experiments, communication relays, meteorological satellites or even to take photos. Im just guessing, the Electron rocket is very good in therms of efficiency, but if we combine and we do an small solid fuel cubesat to LEO rocket? What do u think? – Valentino Zaffrani Dec 09 '20 at 07:46
  • "if u build the entry rocket for around 15k" That's a big "if", i.e. a hard premise to defend. It is true that the way the SS-520 is set up the avionics are minimal (it has to not look like a potential weapon, so it just does a natural gravity turn I think) but good luck making even the engine itself for 15k, or even the combustion chamber, or even a reliable nozzle! Filing the paperwork alone might cost that much. – uhoh Dec 09 '20 at 15:02
  • Some commercial firm is proposing to launch the equivalent of a "second stage" from a high-altitude jet aircraft for just this sort of purpose. – Carl Witthoft Dec 09 '20 at 15:41
  • @CarlWitthoft NASA try a project like that arround 2009 i think, but no success. They launch a sounding rocket (single stage) from a F jet but the rocket dont make orbit – Valentino Zaffrani Dec 09 '20 at 17:43
  • @uhoh I mean, we are talking about a 10m * 52cm rocket, that mostly is fuel, maybe expand not realy expand it, the SS-520 orbit is 180km x 1500km! so probably you just need tweak the pitch and orbit injection to put more payload into 180km x 180km) with some tweaks and doing the entry case of carbon fiber, lets say that we have 10kg of payload, Thats 135k USD for 9 launches of 1U cubesats. And, other point is that i think is a perfect project to start a rocket company . What do u think? – Valentino Zaffrani Dec 09 '20 at 17:47

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