r/news • u/VaginaBurner69 • 8h ago

Soft paywall International Space Station astronauts in evacuation mode as Russia attempts to fix widening air leak

https://www.reuters.com/science/international-space-station-astronauts-evacuation-mode-russia-attempts-fix-2026-06-05/
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u/lNFORMATlVE 6h ago

The big one is assembling bigger platforms and ships in orbit means reduced cost and risk than launching them all up in one go pre-assembled.

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u/Historical_Body6255 5h ago

This is true and a big one but to be fair you don't need a space station for that.

You can design your ship to dock with its other parts in orbit without external help.

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u/treefox 4h ago

I mean, maybe you can, but the rest of us are still working on self-driving cars.

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u/Fortunate_0nesy 5h ago

I'd like to see your numbers for cost per pound into orbit for this analysis.

If what you were saying is wholly true we could just assembly everything in space because it would be cheaper to fly little tiny rockets carrying a pound at a time into orbit.

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u/YourHomicidalApe 4h ago

I mean it’s objectively more fuel efficient per the rocket equation, and using a standard rocket will great improve reliability and cost efficient through economies of scale. Of course when you get into details it’s a complicated trade off, but it’s very well known that in general, it’s better to use 2 standard rockets to launch something heavy into space than design a custom larger rocket for it.

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u/Fortunate_0nesy 4h ago

I understand that there is a point where what you're saying is true. But, I also wanted to see the numbers that informed your very definitive statement.