Bernd<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@WiredForFlight" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>WiredForFlight</span></a></span> Yes, if they can increase Raptor power output sufficiently, this can make a capable transport to LEO.</p><p>But it is hopeless for anything beyond. Such a huge final stage just won't cut it. To think that for this to go to the moon, it requires some 20+ launches of equally big rockets just to refuel it for the trip to the moon and back: that will never happen. It is telling that when Destin from <a href="https://digitalcourage.social/tags/smartereveryday" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>smartereveryday</span></a> showed a slide to NASA, that according to his calculations, 28 launches were needed, some laughed, but nobody contradicted him:<br><a href="https://youtu.be/OoJsPvmFixU?si=GxisrWqjZ6osAilQ&t=1734" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">youtu.be/OoJsPvmFixU?si=GxisrW</span><span class="invisible">qjZ6osAilQ&t=1734</span></a></p><p>It is utterly ludicrous, and yet I still cannot help but admire the beauty of the Methane exhaust flame.</p>