Tory BrunoVerified account

I keep hearing the FH isn't that great when it comes to tossing things beyond LEO, and at a higher cost than competitors.

Basically a recovered FHeavy is out performed by the high end Atlas Vs, and an expendable FHeavy is probably more expensive than those Atlas Vs. the performance numbers are at https://elvperf.ksc.nasa.gov/pages/Query.aspx …

The performance numbers in this database are not accurate. In process of being fixed. Even if they were, a fully expendable Falcon Heavy, which far exceeds the performance of a Delta IV Heavy, is $150M, compared to over $400M for Delta IV Heavy.

Just under $400M for Delta IV Heavy, not over. The cost of the Parker Solar Probe launch is $389.1M (contract announced in 2015).

That was three years ago, before ULA cancelled all medium versions of Delta IV. Future missions have all Delta fixed costs piled on, so their cost is now $600M+ for missions contracted for launch after 2020. Nutty high.

I think after 2020, the idea is to switch to Vulcan-centaur+ for heavy lift not stick with Delta

Maybe that plan works out, but I will seriously eat my hat with a side of mustard if that rocket flies a national security spacecraft before 2023

Wow