>>14129555Removing the landing legs from the booster allows it to push a bit more fuel onboard Starship during launch or a bit more dry mass flexibility (performance) for launch to LEO. Most Super Heavy renders have shown it to have anywhere from 4 to 8 legs, and they're massive; like half a dozen meters stall. They'd need to solid blocks of steel to handle the weight of a fully fueled booster + partially fueled Starship w/ up to 100-150T of drymass cargo onboard. So each leg probably would weigh anywhere from 25-30 tons. Multiply that by say 8 (for even distribution) and you're talking 200-240 tons of dead weight that you're attaching to the booster.
Additionally, SuperHeavy stages too low in the atmosphere compared to Falcon 9, so it doesn't have to spend nearly as much fuel for a boost back and doesn't have to do a reentry burn at all, all of which saves on fuel costs, which are then transferred to Starship for in terms of the drymass and fuel it can carry to LEO. Which in turn means LESS number of tankers need to dock with it, to top it off, and send it on its way.
Furthermore, by doing away with legs, they don't have to worry about the impact 33 Raptor2s will have on the concrete below. Don't have to worry much about fire suppressant deluge towers, and don't have to spend any money on a flame trench. By the proxy of catching the booster ~30-50 meters above the ground, that depth from the bottom of the booster to the ground is SUFFICIENT to bleed off the rebounding thrust from the landing engines, essentially eliminating any possibility of engine bell/throat damage from reflection of concussive atmospherics as well as ground debris AND simultaneously completely bleed away the sheer heat the engine would put out. A raptor2 on the test stand has a drive plume of ~10-15 meters. You could thereby stand at 40 meters distance and the most you'd feel is hot air coming your way.
By doing all of this, they've basically eliminated probly ~100-1k parts and overhead $.
