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Grasshopper concept works as expected, the first stage of
the Falcon 9 will launch again in a matter of hours. It will
take more time before the second stage can launch again,
so to even out, and since the upper stage is less expensive,
SpaceX can manufacture more of those.^315
A drawback with the Grasshopper is that the payload
will decrease. The rocket stages have to preserve fuel
so they can land again and the Grasshopper technology
increases the weight. But because the rockets can launch
more frequently, the system as a whole will be less ex-
pensive. “The payload penalty for full and fast reusability
versus an expendable version is roughly 40 percent, [but]
propellant cost is less than 0.4 percent of the total flight
cost. Even taking into account the payload reduction for
reusability, the improvement is therefore theoretically over
a hundred times,” Elon said.^315
When SpaceX’s system is fully developed, a pound
[0.45 kg] of cargo will cost $100 to launch. “Our perfor-
mance will increase and our prices will decline over time as
is the case with every other technology,” Elon said.^288 The
cars from Tesla Motors will become cheaper and cheaper in
a similar way as when our computes became cheaper and
cheaper, and so will the rockets.
NASA retired the Space Shuttle in 2011 after it had
been in service since 1981. They now turned to SpaceX
for help to launch cargo to the International Space Station.
NASA agreed to pay SpaceX $40 million per launch, which