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this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
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Futurology
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You can get comparable isp with methalox engines without any of the weight required to keep the hydrogen inside the rocket, right?
Hydrogen ISP is still king by a significant margin, but ISP isn't the whole story -- hydrogen comes with additional tank weight (due to lower density) and storage issues (pesky molecular size...). So that trade-off for ISP only really makes sense for an upper stage like Centaur. I'm not sure it makes sense for New Shepherd even...