
Souped-up sounding rocket lifts off from Japan with tiny satellite - rbanffy
https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/02/ss-520-5-tricom-1r-test-launch/
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montrose
This seems to me a big deal, if the miniaturization of satellites turns
rockets that weren't previously launch vehicles into ones that are.

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aerodog
This is cool, but to put it in perspective, the Falcon Heavy (set to
launch...tomorrow?) cost $90,000,000 with a 8,000 kg payload...this is about
$5,000 / pound.

The Japanese one was $3,500,000 for 3 kg, or over $500,000 / pound.

My math kinda right? I'm ignoring that Elon's rocket is theoretically reusable
10+ times, so his number could be much lower.

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eesmith
Was the $3.5M just for the launch or also for the development costs?

I think it was the latter, but I'm not easily able to find that answer.

[http://spaceflight101.com/ss-520-4-smallest-orbital-
rocket-s...](http://spaceflight101.com/ss-520-4-smallest-orbital-rocket-set-
for-launch/) suggests a goal of $400,000, but doesn't specifically say if that
estimate comes from this rocket design.

That would still be more expensive per pound than a Falcon Heavy, but if you
only wanted to put up 2kg then a FH is overkill.

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anentropic
What does "sounding rocket" mean in this context? I thought the headline meant
it 'sounded like it was souped-up', but from the article it seemed like maybe
it had another meaning.

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ris
Sounding rockets are small-ish, usually solid propelled rockets used
principally for upper-atmosphere research. Importantly they are originally
designed for sub-orbital flight. The notable thing here is not only bringing
it to orbit, but doing so with a payload.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounding_rocket](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounding_rocket)

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anentropic
thanks!

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baybal2
As I know, companies co-launching on soyuzes pay up from 10k to 100k per cube

