On Sat, Jan 23, 2016 at 8:24 PM, Craig Remillard <craig.rem@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I think Elon and/or Gwynne have said publicly that F9 1.1 was designed from
the start for reuse. Honestly I'm surprised how similar the two vehicles
look. If you think through the evolution of New Shepard to an orbital
booster - increase mass fraction from ~80s to ~90s %, convert to methane for
volumetric efficiency, increase thrust to lift a second stage, add
crossrange capability and heat shields - the differences largely become
cosmetic. It could just be that this is an obvious local minimum for a
reusable booster in the current low-elasticity market. My hope is we're
looking at biplanes c. 1914.
