The Smallest Rocket - The SS-520-5

On February 3rd JAXA successfully launched a payload to orbit with the smallest rocket ever - 2.6 tons and less than 10 meters tall. The SS-520-5 takes a sounding rocket and adds a 3rd stage along with guidance and control hardware to orient the rocket prior to insertion.

[@AirJimInCT]

So Scott, you’re telling me, in short, that this is basically the worlds largest model rocket.

[@scottmanley]

It's a sounding rocket with ideas above its (space) station.

[@damstachizz]

Well at the end of the day there's nothing stopping you from making a big model rocket and hitting 101km so you got to space

[@AirJimInCT]

Señor Koquonfaes, I think I will get right on that.

[@Ved000000]

Señor Koquonfaes - There's an XKCD What If on getting something to space using model rocket engines. Funny read.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Scott Manley >>> ["(space) station"] Nice one...LOL

[@Wintergreen_]

I'm glad you clarified with "made into orbit" because I was about to bust out a super condescending "I made a smaller one when I was 10."

[@ryanvalentine4151]

Police officer: Sir, what is that in your car? Me: An orbital capable rocket.

[@RandomizedRandom]

lmao

[@steveadams7550]

You have a very large car.

[@dosmastrify]

They should have called it quark, because it's smaller than the electron

[@zen_of_chloe]

There's no evidence quarks are smaller than electrons AFAIK. Neat idea tho...

[@RME76048]

If electrons have no mass, then they also have no size.

[@PrussianPawn]

@@RME76048 they have mass 109×10−31 kg

[@ValleysOfRain]

@@RME76048 From what I've read, electrons don't actually exist as a particle per se, as more a cloud of probability and charge around a nucleus.

[@ThatRealredheadedkid]

Fun Joke!!

[@drink15]

One closer to pizza delivery to the ISS.

[@kairon156]

The delivery fee is going to be Huge! It'll be cheaper to design a pizza oven that works in 0G.

[@joshuahadams]

The problem is that bread - like pizza crust - isn’t allowed on the ISS because it’s too crumbly. The crumbs would get into everything. If it were on a tortilla or something it could happen.

[@TheAnantaSesa]

Pizza in a cup then. Like in "the Jerk" movie.

[@dieleg]

@Coordinate Floaty they dont space icecream isnt actually eaten in space

[@dieleg]

@Randy Baumery 1st of all: use your fucking brain 2nd. you cant really simulate a spacewalk or weightlessness on earth no matter the 3d effects we have today.

[@IstasPumaNevada]

Congratulations to JAXA. Even if it's not financially viable, it's still technologically impressive, and very neat.

[@yokowan]

The Japanese just really like their small and cute things. Now someone needs to anthropomorphize it. I need Rocket-Chan in my life.

[@Bankstercide]

Considering that they've done that for nations, battleships and assault rifles (yes, really), I wouldn't be surprised at all.

[@Maddin1313]

Rocket-Chan daki

[@TapOnX]

SS-520-5-chan is the best girl

[@dancorps1388]

John Doe the internet even went so far as to make planets at one point.

[@yokowan]

mars-chan best girl

[@christheother9088]

Looks and flies like the Estes rockets I flew as a kid. Of course, mine were...um... sub-orbital.

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

Chris Gonzales Ah, you were doing it wrong! More dakka.

[@UpcycleElectronics]

Every unfound Estes is in orbit.

[@frankgonzalezdelvalle8180]

Easy: ADD MOAR BOOSTERS

[@maxwellbrown5054]

Chris Gonzales lol you seriously didn't reach orbit? Try a C motor.

[@MrJdsenior]

@@UpcycleElectronics LOL...I SECOND that, and I'm a retired aerospace engineer!

[@paulgemperlein626]

This is freaky. Just looked up the SS-520 half an hour ago wondering why I haven't seen a video of it and then here we have it

[@Fabi33677]

scott manley magic right there

[@ChrisUAnimation]

"Japanese rocket so small, you Americans have such humongous bulbous rockets" - south park called it

[@thefirstsin]

Lol🤣

[@snowvalleyrat]

I am very simple man, with very small rocket.

[@impguardwarhamer]

it would be cool if you made a video on JAXA's history, or perhaps the history of other smaller space programs. I don't really know barely anything JAXA has done

[@93ndani]

They launched US made rockets if I remember correctly. They started to develop their own rockets only recently.

[@YaksAttack]

I'm pretty sure their constitution banned them from producing guided missiles, which included rockets for scientific purposes.

[@cs-ot1wz]

Yes, I would really like a series on the history of space agencies. While I know something about esa and nasa, I know too less about the russian space agency, the asian space agencies...

[@worawatli8952]

Looked up Mitsubishi Heavy Industry HIIA. They literally make everything, from pen, cars to orbital rocket.

[@NSS7]

This is several interesting mission by JAXA for last 10 years. - JAXA is the first space agency to land and bring back sample from asteroid to earth, Hayabusa. - JAXA send Akatsuki probe to venus - JAXA send Kaguya orbiter to moon - JAXA had their own supply mission to ISS called Kounotori - KIBO is the biggest component of ISS - IKAROS is the first spacecraft using solar sail technology - JAXA also develop Japan Satellite Network called QZSS - Hayabusa2 recently drop 2 rovers on asteroid making Japan first country to land rovers on asteroid.

[@jsleinonen]

If you have to guess what caused any piece of space hardware to catastrophically fail, "frayed wiring" is a classic.

[@rancidmarshmallow4468]

falcon heavy + SS-520-5 = finally able to do the kerbal-level feat of getting to orbit, deorbiting, and then getting to orbit again!

[@RandomizedRandom]

what an idea, why didnt i think of that

[@stren000]

way to go Jaxa, innovating once again

[@francoisleveille409]

In the 1990's, I was very much into model rockets and even flew a few 'High Powered' rockets. I always asked myself, what's the minimum sized rocket you can use to get to orbit and... there's the answer!

[@ValentineC137]

IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW BIG IT IS, IT'S HOW YOU USE IT Right? ;o;

[@dannypeck96]

well the japanese would say that

[@jarhead1145]

Well, there isn't a whole lot you can do with that tiny thing.

[@adamkerman475]

@@jarhead1145 it’s not about the size it’s the number of stages that matters

[@blockvfive1196]

@@dannypeck96 LOL

[@FearlessLeader2001]

Japan proving yet again that it isn’t the size that counts, it’s how you use it.

[@ac11dc110]

The big question is how much does it cost

[@sciencechicken7669]

Exactly

[@sciencechicken7669]

But the bigger question is that can you fit a small nuke in it if you take away the third stage? }:)

[@devans.5324]

yes, there are really small nukes now.

[@foxfyreseraph2275]

A tomahawk cruise missile is both smaller and lighter and it is capable of being nuclear, so yes, probably.

[@AKAtheA]

1) A Tomahawk only launches like a rocket, but once it's cruising it's more of a plane with stubby little wings and a small turbofan engine 2) The nuclear warhead it can carry weighs either 130kg or 176kg depending on which version, so no - it couldn't reach orbit on the SS-520-5

[@josephd.5524]

I like that they just use butcher paper for the third stage fairing.

[@wst8340]

There's a Kobi Steak underneath.

[@eh42]

A followup video explaining the guidance would be cool. I thought I read that the rocket fins spin stabilized it and then 40 some-odd little charges on the side fired in sync with the rotation to tip the rocket over to the correct orientation for the orbital insertion. That is, it sounded like the nozzle's didn't gimble. Would love to know more!

[@josephgroves3176]

ehu42. The diagram said Rhumb line guidance. Rhumb lines! That is insane

[@softb]

some missiles use this system

[@1224chrisng]

you can easily fit multiple of these in a 8'x8'x40' ISO Container, and put those on the Space Shuttle. btw, the auto-predict text says Space Core when I said space SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE

[@jaewilliss5407]

Seems almost Kerbal scale.

[@TheSigurdsson]

This is the Japanese engineering philosophy all over. Back in the 1980s, we were happy with our portable ghetto blasters which were far smaller than our home hi-fi units. The Japanese laughed, "You call that small?" Boom! they invent the Walkman.

[@IcefightFX]

TheSigurdsson the Original Walkman was invented by the german „Andreas Pavel“. Two years later Sony copied this Walkman :D

[@holetoanotheruniverse4690]

Icefight Tja

[@alexquant1335]

No wonder no one noticed .. IT'S BLOODY TINY!!!

[@chrictonj9503]

Interesting. Thanks for actual launch footage, I usually only see the animation.

[@Ravlen1]

Not that it's super important, but the launch site is Uchinoura, pronounced Oo-chi-no-oo-rah (with no emphasis on any syllable). I live in the area, FYI (You can see terrible videos of an Epsilon launch I took from the same launch site).

[@Stark578]

I wonder how it translates?

[@raggedclawstarcraft6562]

I love you Scott, you're one of the smartest people I've ever seen.

[@00ddub]

Thank you Scott 👍🏻

[@SwampMonster1]

This seems like a good goal for my new rocket hobby 🤔

[@possessedllama]

Man, I need to get down to Kyushu to see a JAXA launch at some point.

[@vikkimcdonough6153]

Of course, going by JAXA's official naming scheme, the orbital version of the SS-520 should really be called the _SSS-520,_ since it has three stages.

[@truegret7778]

That's awesome !! Quite the achievement. Kudos. Oh, I realized this was >4 years ago .... still very impressive.

[@Heimbasteln]

This is awesome! Just imagine that you could buy a small orbital rocket in a few years at a home improvement store for a few thousand dollars and launch whatever you want into orbit

[@IbakonFerba]

And embrace Kessler Syndrome xD

[@JoshuaPlays99]

That'd be an FAA nightmare.

[@Charlie-id4tv]

How much does this cost? Can I afford my own satellite now?

[@CoolNinja925]

No

[@UpcycleElectronics]

Replacement motors are available at your local craft store next to the model cars, an isle past the fake flowers and yarn.

[@awc.sorensen]

HO LAM YIU they are called motors

[@fsmoura]

yes, you can finally have your own private orbital seedbox beaming you torrents 24/7

[@TheVergile]

If you are able to afford a house you are probably already able to afford a cubesat to LEO. Wasn't it 250k or something?

[@chase-2-2]

I actually think you could find a use for that rocket. Imagine the following: One of the hardest things to do is inclination, because it's bound mostly to the launchpads position. Having such a tiny and maybe portable rocket means you could put payloads into any imaginable inclination.

[@GoatzAreEpic]

Would that be cheaper than just moving to a different launch pad?

[@theuncalledfor]

+dies200 Problem. That thing is made entirely out of SRB's. Very little precision.

[@NavidIsANoob]

Your videos are gaining in views again, I see. That's great!

[@Michaelonyoutub]

do you think we will ever come to a point where these small launchers can be mass produced? It would be cool if instead of your school doing a time capsule, you do a space capsule.

[@ChaiKirbs]

It's a lot cheaper to send something up with SpaceX on a falcon 9 along with a bunch of cubesats other companies are paying for.

[@frawstedbutts5618]

That orbital plane would get absolutely full of space trash though, big problem for future missions

[@ForwardBias]

A time capsule is meant to be opened in the future. Wtf would be the use of a space capsule?

[@ben4R]

​@@frawstedbutts5618depends on how high you put it, technically anything below a certain point is coming down within a few years.

[@NetRolller3D]

Just 3 days between the world's smallest rocket and the world's largest rocket.

[@kennyb6541]

Size matters.

[@dhkatz_]

The Falcon Heavy is not the the world's largest rocket. Saturn V remains the top until BFR is built.

[@MarvinCZ]

Doctor Jew It's the largest (most powerful) rocket currently in service, though not in history.

[@NolePTR]

What does BFR stand for? Big Fucking Rocket?

[@BoarhideGaming]

marvincz3 Second most powerful rocket in history though, since the Russians sadly failed their N-1s back in the day.

[@vikkimcdonough6153]

I wonder if the SS-520-5 or something derived from it could be used as part of a Mars sample return mission (as the rocket for launching a small amount of soil/rock back into Mars orbit)?

[@theuncalledfor]

I doubt it. Using SRB's like that is seriously limiting. Maybe if they made a liquid fuel rocket of that size, it could work. But SRB's are just too imprecise/inflexible.

[@dsthaipola2611]

probably, @HyEnDHybridEngineDevelopment has been developing hybrid engines which would be optimal for this use, and probably almost a drop in replacement for the solid fuel engines which might make that mission hard

[@MaverickLSC]

Scott, did you know that the former smallest orbital rocket was also built by Japan? The Lambda-4S! I would love to see you cover that one as well.

[@wilboersma9441]

Don't know if you have seen it or not but he actually has! Really neat stuff.

[@Patchuchan]

I wonder if they mounted this rocket on top of a lander and launch it on Falcon Heavy could it be used to return a sample from one of Jupiter's moons or even Pluto?

[@JaspreetSinghArtist]

Patchuchan no

[@GnanaPrakash86AP]

unlikely since this is entirely solid rockets

[@damstachizz]

Not that likely with this, but there's nothing stopping the FH with an extended fairing from sending an electron somewhere.

[@josephgroves3176]

Gnana Prakash. Solid rockets make it more reliable for starting up the motor after a long time. Liquid fuels are to be avoided at all costs!

[@GnanaPrakash86AP]

And how are they going get the return sample without any sort of correction burns?

[@MsSomeonenew]

On this kind of level I wonder if a space gun combo could make it much cheaper, as in launch a smaller rocket a couple miles up and then do the burn.

[@michaelbuckers]

The eqipment inside wouldn't survive the accelerations. You're talking something like 1500 Gs.

[@peterdvornik]

It's wouldn't be very efficient

[@米空軍パイロット]

Mi 28 We need a long railway mass driver.

[@MichaelThe-Pyro]

it could look into how shotguns work all youd need is a longer barrel and a slower burning powder and some gas seals and a few cushions

[@elroyscout]

The damn little bastard is adorable.

[@tristanmaz3212]

Quite impressive !!

[@bandiras2]

So this small rocket can be carried to somewhere over 5000 meters mountain in the Everest or the Andese or anywhere else high near to the equator, and can perform much higher yield as it not even gain 5000 meters height advance, but allready left behind most of the dense atmosphere. This means higher payload, or higher orbit, or both with cheap side boosters.

[@daveboy2000]

Excellent platform for a kinetic kill vehicle, though.

[@jackalovski1]

If anyone was going to get the world record for making the smallest of something technical like an orbital class rocket, you'd expect it to be the Japanese.

[@henrikmikaelkristensen4784]

Could this be used to send emergency supplies to ISS?

[@dimitar4y]

Doubt it. Launch windows are still a thing. It doesn't have "smart thrusters" to help it catch up to the ISS.

[@nextgenerationlibert]

I guess in theory you could use a small rocket like this to deliver high value, low weight items like medical supplies or small electronic components. I keep getting this image in my head that it could be like the Amazon drone delivery service but for astronauts.

[@ebigunso]

The fact that it uses solid motors for the final stage means it can't put it's payload into planned orbits precisely, so no. Probably just for stuff that wants to "Just get to orbit, regardless of orbital parameters". Also The high G forces involved would not be great for sensitive equipment like electronics and medical supplies.

[@dustinm2717]

Henrik theoretically yes but practically speaking not really. Nextgenerationliberty i misread your comment and now the only thing i can think of is a small rocket like this being used to deliver donuts to an astronaut (i read amazon donut delivery service instead of "amazon drone delivery service")

[@UpcycleElectronics]

This is how you send the post-it note telling them when to expect the next resupply

[@pluto8404]

Did they send a hot wheels car for the test flight?

[@kaerypheur]

This reminds me of a Tesla car launched to orbit

[@MrJdsenior]

What about Estes? Seriously, though, that rocket as an upper stage, INSIDE the fairing, interesting and very strange concept. Man, that thing was encountering some VICIOUS sheer up there! I would have been biting my lip, thinking "hang together, baby".

[@ryannygard3661]

Any idea what the cost of sending that cubesat to space?

[@LeeKeegan]

According to Google it was $4,400,000 so not really a cheap way to go when rocket lab can send the same cubesat up for $240,000.

[@matthewfelgate]

Thanks for explaining. Could costs be reduced to make it economical?

[@MadMorgie6318]

Trust Japan to make the most kawaii rocket~ 🤗

[@kadlubom]

Give it to the falt-earthers so they can check for themselves how much they are wrong :D

[@samuelbarber1114]

Interesting video Scott

[@TheVergile]

very very interesting. If money wasn't an issue it would be nice to always have a few of these on hand and ready to launch in case of emergencies.

[@pleasestaysafe2787]

I found out about this launch on the app launch alarm. So I followed JAXA on KZbin and tried to watch the launch live. However, it was super choppy and kept cutting out, so I was unable to watch the launch.

[@TechyBen]

What is this? A rocket for ANTS? (Where is the banana for scale? And why not do a KSP style SpaceX with payload of SS-520-5 challenge? First Real Life Rocket to orbit, recovery landing, back to orbit! :D ).

[@kirtil5177]

thats a good idea to have as a supply rocket, change some stuff and its probably easier to make then most rockets and its fast

[@RandomVideoGuy-qy8fu]

2:59 Why is there a sharp bend in the trajectory near the start of the launch?

[@RamLaska]

4:04 Ha! I've been doing that in KSP for ages! lol 🤪

[@edwarddoernberg3428]

"the final orbit they ended up with was actually slightly higher than they expected" I always assumed that in the modern space age you needed to be careful launching satellites to put them in an orbit that wouldn't interfere with any of the existing satellites. just how crowded is LEO these days. and how much consideration needs to be given to not crashing into things.

[@josephgroves3176]

Leo decays quite quickly, so dead satellites deorbit unlike geostationary. But Leo has much less space than gso

[@ateebtahir7226]

How much they cost? Cost per weight ratio is very important to note here.

[@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi]

aww i love it when mr Manley compares real life to Kerbal hahaa :)

[@joshualast8321]

How much does one of these rockets cost? I feel like it would be possible to make this very economically viable through semi-mass production. Nowadays there is quite high demand for small satellites.

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

Joshua Last Falcon Heavy could launch about a million of them in one go.

[@joshualast8321]

Jim Fupanda but what if the satellite needs a specific orbit? Wouldn't everything on the Falcon end up in essentially the same orbit?

[@n7565j]

Could FB use a rocket like this to put up their LEO internet service they were promoting a while back??? Excellent video Mr Manly :-)

[@K1lostream]

Scott - what do you think of cubesats? Do they all have to have the capability to de-orbit themselves these days? or are they likely contributors to the Kessler syndrome if they're launched in large numbers?

[@ben4R]

I don't know about other orbits, but this one should decay fast enough to burn up in the atmosphere before it sits around too long.

[@metropod]

That coupled to a Falcon Heavy in expendable mode. Delta V total on that would be enormous...

[@magneticpizzasr]

metropod and then put a toy car in top

[@metropod]

marty reddy might even make Alpha Centauri in only a few centuries.

[@aleramone23]

You can launch things into space from your backyard with that thing.

[@Jimfoxyboy]

Not economical? I'm curious by what factor. I don't suppose they gave a cost of launching the cubesat into orbit? I'm sure the small size would give it some kind of a trade off somewhere. A majority, if not all of the larger launch systems, you need massive facilities and ground support, just to get the thing built, sent to the pad and off the ground. Now I wish I had some cash, or something. Kind of makes me want to send a radio cubesat into orbit now. Then again, in recent days, I've been checking on a number of satellite based HAM radio subjects and videos. I can see the field growing quite a bit, as things become more and more accessible to people. Kudos for sharing, otherwise, ya, it would have been completely overlooked by the Falcon Heavy. :)

[@MrRelojero]

incredible

[@1_2_die2]

Great times we are livin'

[@mbukukanyau]

To me this looks like it would be more useful as an air to air kill vehicle, the range, speed including maneuverability would make it different to defend against

[@davidroberts4831]

Hi Scot Manley cool 😎 video 🇬🇧❤️David

[@danilooliveira6580]

is it possible to get a few extra kg if they use carbon composite materials ?

[@onurmemis3618]

Danilo Oliveira They probably already are.

[@mathieu1lastar]

Amazing ! Is the third stage use to "circularize" the orbit a bit more by firing it a the optimum time based on telemetry data ? And is a non circulized orbit bad for a cub-sat usage?

[@Spiz103]

Quick Question: Whilst solid rocket motors have traditionally been considered the "cheap" option - why are things like the Vega such niche players in the launch market?

[@zockertwins]

SRBs are meant to be reused, this one isn't

[@Spiz103]

Supposedly the first stage on the Vega (P80) and the Merlin have comparable sea level specific impulses of about 280 seconds

[@RME76048]

4:39 'real rockets' ... nothing fake about this one! 4:58 the still shot appears to show a yo-yo despin. Quite an achievement! I can see where specialized cube-sats could be launched at (literally) a moment's notice to measure just about anything and at a truly down-to-Earth cost! Something affordable that could put college class projects into orbit too.

[@w33leeg23]

You think if the Falcon Heavy launched that thing on top of it the rocket could be delivered to a course towards Pluto, and could the rocket perform a retrograde burn once it gets there to enter orbit over Pluto, even with a stupid small payload (like a 1kg CubeSat or something)?

[@w33leeg23]

Yeah, although I'm interested in the possibility of whether the small rocket, once it got to Pluto, could fire up its engines and do a retrograde burn and deploy an orbiter to Pluto, even if it was a tiny 1kg CubeSat with a few basic instruments that could take some photos and do some science that the flyby missed. Would just be a silly interesting concept haha. I'm sure the small rocket isn't designed to be able to survive long periods of spaceflight though.

[@alexsiemers7898]

w33leeg and just an RTG for power would be quite a bit of mass

[@w33leeg23]

Damn, forgot about that.

[@w33leeg23]

Well the rocket is 2.6 tons. The FH can deliver 3.5 tons to Pluto. Could a small RTG be squeezed into that?

[@Keldor314]

Sounds like it should be reasonably possible from a propulsion standpoint. But how are you going to communicate with it when it gets there? Outer planet probes like Voyager and New Horizons had quite large radio dishes to send and receive signals to and from Earth, and for good reason. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are all more than a billion miles away! The radio dishes on Earth that they use to pick up the faint signals from the spacecraft and send signals back loudly enough for the spacecraft to detect them are none other than some of the world's most powerful radio telescopes! So if you want to try to pack something like that into a cubesat not that much bigger than a WiFi router, be my guest, but it sounds a bit unlikely with current technology.

[@sebastianwilkinson8012]

Any chance you could do another ksp realism overhaul series, Scott? These small rockets reminded me of it.

[@ConcreteBombDeep]

What type or size of satellite is needed to broadcast camera footage like google earth?

[@Rodhern]

Nice. What is the initial TWR of that thing?

[@scottmanley]

about 5:1

[@TheBedrockCreeper]

What factor changes that makes a bigger rocket more cost effective than a smaller rocket?

[@zockertwins]

Making things really small adds a lot of development costs. And it's not reusable, which is really hard to do with such small rockets. Building the ss-520 10 times bigger wouldnt multiply the development and manufacturing cost by 10, but the payload mass. And if you use a bit of that payload mass to install parachutes or landing legs, the launch gets even more cost-efficient.

[@MichelPASTOR]

Great achievement !

[@l00narcy]

How about the rail launchpad? And other launchpad variations?

[@FlyingSurprise]

I was thinking about how similair the launch is to KSP and there it came, the KSP reference. :-)

[@NoNameAtAll2]

Please, Scott, add "orbital" in the title You have just made angry a lot of casual rocket makers

[@dkosmari]

I know, right? I made some pretty small water bottle rockets myself, how dare he ignore my achievements?

[@cube2fox]

If you want to put as much mass as possible into high orbits, what is the cheapest way of doing so? Using many smaller rockets or using fewer larger rockets? I assume larger rockets tend to be more cost-effective, but is there a limit in rocket size, beyond which smaller is better? In other words, does physics imply an optimal rocket size for getting mass to orbit, and what is this size?

[@ben4R]

Bigger is basically better, unless either it's so big it's dying under it's own weight (trying to launch an entire skyscraper) or so small you can replace the first stage with something that doesn't have to leave the ground (spinlaunch, mortar assisted rocketry, or something yeeted out of a jet above most of the atmosphere)

[@mfl-metaversefootballleagu1819]

Oh that's a nice military application. Load em like a starlink launch. Deploy them over whatever target. Payload of small nuclear arms. Game changer 🤔

[@davidturpin9135]

5:08 is that right? 2000 km apogee? That's more than a little higher than expected.

[@the18thdoctor3]

Nah that's probably right. A 2000 km by 180 km orbit doesn't need that much more delta-v (from a 180-km injection) than a 180 km circular orbit, and given thrust variability, it's better to overshoot than undershoot.

[@PhillipJohnsonphiljo]

Do you know roughly how much it would cost all in for 1 smallest rocket launch now that the kinks are ironed out? Would it be a few million $ or not even a million $?

[@Bameninghong3010]

Would be nice to send a small private satellite (for reasons) to space :D Love your Videos Scott

[@danmack1980]

What speeds could be hit if, like you said, a falcon heavy took this into orbit and then the rocket started from there instead?

[@jwharvey7167]

So what is the comparision to the Rocket Lab Electron rocket in size and capabilities?

[@ragingauroch1690]

Oi, Scott. I'm a long time viewer and want to say good job but need a favor if you don't mind. I recently bought ksp for ps4 and damn if I can't figure out how to make maneuver nodes. First time playing, ever, started on career and space was easy. Orbit in an hour on career but I couldn't get to the mun in two because of those nodes. Anyway hope you see this and have a good evening Mr. Manley

[@EricssonB]

Still adorable.

[@grobbs666]

So is the third stage on this rocket (and last stages of other rockets) deorbited after it separates from the payload? The last stage on any rocket would end up in orbit with the payload since its the last thing to burn. I think I remember hearing the falcon 9 second stage is, but this one's last stage looks so tiny. And it seems any thrusters on it for deorbiting would add such a relativily large amount of mass to it.

[@bwjclego]

There would be no deorbiting of the 3rd stage. It does not have any thrusters to let it do that, and since it is a solid rocket, its main engine can only be lit once, for getting to orbit.

[@mzmadmike]

If you did want to de-orbit for atmospheric vaporization, it takes very little thrust to reduce velocity below orbital minimums.

[@cs-ot1wz]

So what I know from f9 is that for leo missions they deorbit the stage (first time I really "noticed" that was after the confirmes zuma-deorbiting). For gto-missions, as far as I know, they leave the stage in orbit for "orbital decay" which is so slow that every 2nd stage is still up there. If they do direct geo-insertion they will most likely bring the stage into a graveyard orbit

[@alaskanbas6507]

I'm going to build a sugar rocket and shoot my phone into space showing a picture of Jeb.

[@spacekii]

Smallest rocket? Cool!

[@clayman0430]

hey scott i have a question! if you shrunk an orbital rocket down couldn't you still get to orbit?

[@jasonpatterson8091]

No, it doesn't really work that way. The amount of delta-v a rocket has is a function of the ratio of its fueled vs empty mass. As a practical matter, you can't make a tiny rocket with an empty mass small enough to contain the high pressures and temperatures involved.

[@aleksandersuur9475]

And losses from gravity turn and atmospheric drag get worse fast as you miniaturize. Its a double whammy, you can't make as good a rocket as you get smaller and the task gets more difficult at the same time.

[@barnabasigari3109]

No beacuse the earth will stay the same and if we make a ratio called rocket size - earth size ratio that ratio will bi smaller if you shrinked down the rocket

[@aleksandersuur9475]

+Barnabas Igari eeh... no, that really doesn't matter, perfectly to scale rocket would have same delta v as a bigger one. Its a matter of not being able to miniaturize complex mechanics and having worse problems with atmosphere.

[@bbelcher4355]

if you had some way of getting it the same distance a larger one would due to all the extra fuel it will carry