• Question: how long does it take to build a rocket

    Asked by abigail on 10 Nov 2021.
    • Photo: Henry Darch

      Henry Darch answered on 10 Nov 2021:

      Well I’m certainly not a rocket scientist. However, it depends on how big a rocket you want and how easy it is to make.
      Those big fireworks that blow up in the sky are rockets, and i’d guess they take a few minutes each to make in a big factory. The rockets that take satellites and people out into space take much, much longer. Tens of years in designing and planning, and years of building, and days to move it all to the launch platform.

    • Photo: Pawel Rulikowski

      Pawel Rulikowski answered on 10 Nov 2021:

      New concept for rocket to develop takes more than a decade (10 years). Falcon Heavy SpaceX rocket development took about 15 years from initial discussion to first successful launch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy). You can see yourself how rocket factory looks like inside over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0fG_lnVhHw . And here what ti takes to prepare rocket for launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdPoVi_h0r0 . The first modern rocket was German V2 used as a weapon during World War 2. Remarkably it took only about 10 years to develop starting from mid-1930s and first successful flight was in 1943.

    • Photo: Cyrille Thinnes

      Cyrille Thinnes answered on 11 Nov 2021:

      Hi Abigail, I do not know myself. However, I know that SpaceX managed to greatly accelerate the time it takes to make a rocket, and were therefore able to now offer space flights for tourism!

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