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Space Exploration

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    $\begingroup$ Upper stages need to be smaller than the lower stages. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 5, 2019 at 5:11
  • $\begingroup$ Also the shape of the nozzles and the expansion of the fuel account for a lot of the efficiency design. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 19, 2019 at 22:26
  • $\begingroup$ @MagicOctopusUrn: I was more thinking of exchanging lower stages for lower stages and upper stages for upper stages, not lower for upper or upper for lower; alternatively, rockets with different lower stages sharing a common upper stage, or rockets with the same lower stage using different upper stages. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 19, 2019 at 22:29
  • $\begingroup$ Regarding footnote 5, didn’t those potential Shuttle-Centaur payloads end up on Centaur anyway, meaning that they aren’t an addition to those already counted in footnote 4? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 31, 2019 at 23:22
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    $\begingroup$ Oh, duh, I knew that. Thanks. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 1, 2019 at 2:19