Baker's Dozen

As SpaceX continues to shake up the industry with significantly lower costs to orbit than other launch providers, they face the daunting challenge of a growing Falcon 9 launch manifest with a demand for more than a dozen flights per year.  Over the past 5 years, however, their average cadence has been only 1.6 launches per year.

 

How can SpaceX keep pace with their own success?  On this first day of April one can only suggest that they adopt the baker’s dozen marketing and launch strategy.

 

 

Many who think that the Falcon Heavy is an excellent idea will be certain to conclude that this is even better:

• Potential customers are certain to appreciate the 13^th free payload, resulting in even greater market share.

• Once landing legs have been proven, this Rockettes configuration has the potential to guarantee that all payloads reach orbit, even with several dozen engine failures, resulting in even lower launch insurance rates.

• Many outspoken hobbyists have been railing against NASA’s new (Jupiter Direct) Space Launch System.  After all, who could propose such a bad idea?  Now they will be able to press for its premature retirement, just like Constellation and the X-33 VentureStar, since this SpaceX configuration might have almost the same LEO payload as the fully operational SLS.

• This configuration would be ideally suited to deliver strings of Mars One Dragon habitats to the surface of Mars for the greater pleasure of viewing audiences.

       

The only obvious downside is the closing of Friday launch windows.

 

What shall they call it?  Certainly not Falcon Wide, for fear of indirectly offending the better half of the human race…  For that matter, maybe Falcon Heavy is not the best name for a vehicle.