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by dandelany 3807 days ago
The fuel cost of a Falcon 9 launch is ~$200k. In a perfect world (tons of launches), lets say (generously) that we get launch costs down a million a pop, all things included.

BO's New Shepard is shooting for something like $100k or less per flight. The rocket is much smaller, uses less fuel, and is much easier to move around on the ground, reducing fixed launch costs. It's at least an order of magnitude lower in price, for a completely different service (suborbital tourism), which will make it accessible to a much larger market.
2 comments
sandworm101 3806 days ago
Larger market? I think not. The space launch biz is populated by hundreds of different companies, all wanting to spend millions or billions to get a useful sat into orbit. BO is looking to a small group of billionaires with the money to throw 30-50k to spend a few minutes vomiting. And of those, only the ones young enough to participate, a rare thing amongst billionaires.

(1) The launch is not gentle. Everyone will be strapped tightly into chairs, ready for launch escape rocket thrust if necessary.

(2) Time weightless will be measured in minutes, probably less than ten. So nobody is getting out of the chairs. At best they get a few minutes of watching pens hover, unless that is everything has to be secure. In such cases only the vomit will float.

(3) The landing options are not great. Soft if all goes to plan, but parachutes/hard if no. So everyone stays in chairs. No old people and/or heart conditions need apply.

How many people pay to ride the vomit comet every year? How many of them are billionaires? That's BO's market.

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motoboi 3806 days ago
Well, I'm not even a millionaire and I would very gladly sell my house to go to the space, even for a few minutes.

Best thing is: with that money, I can go twice!

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sandworm101 3806 days ago
cc. Here ya go: https://www.gozerog.com/
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wcoenen 3806 days ago
The Falcon 9 first stage accounts for only 3/4th of the launch cost[1]. Given the $60M+ [2] total current launch cost, that still leaves $15M even if booster reuse is free.

SpaceX no longer has plans to develop second stage reusability for the Falcon[3].

[1] http://shitelonsays.com/transcript/spacex-press-conference-s... section "Question on the changes to the Falcon 9"

[2] http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities

[3] http://space.stackexchange.com/questions/10391/how-does-spac...

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