Right, in practice prices in the launch industry are not ‘prices’ as a consumer would understand them because any quote comes with certain contractual restrictive covenants, agreements, timelines, etc., that really are more akin to home buying than a typical commodity priced in per kg terms.
For order of magnitude comparisons we can ignore all that, for finer grained comparisons it really is comparing apples and oranges.
In the ideal future world launches should be done without the need for secret contracts, something like the private jet industry where planes can chartered, almost at the push of a button, at short notice.
For order of magnitude comparisons we can ignore all that, for finer grained comparisons it really is comparing apples and oranges.
In the ideal future world launches should be done without the need for secret contracts, something like the private jet industry where planes can chartered, almost at the push of a button, at short notice.