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by sgjohnson 1589 days ago
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/spacex-nasa-launch-cost-i...

> So far, the average costs of launching cargo remain on par with the space shuttle at about $US30,000 per lb. (The space shuttle cost about $US1.5 billion per mission, including development, and could carry up to 50,000 lbs of cargo.)

Also not to mention that the Wikipedia table is probably irrelevant, because for the Space Shuttle launch cost is just the total cost of the entire program (including R&D and everything else) divided by how much it actually carried, while SpaceX figures are literally just Elon's marketing material. Look at the citations.

> The development of commercial launch systems has substantially reduced the cost of space launch. NASA’s space shuttle had a cost of about $1.5 billion to launch 27,500 kg to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), $54,500/kg. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 now advertises a cost of $62 million to launch 22,800 kg to LEO, $2,720/kg.

The fact that SpaceX advertises that figure doesn't make it true.
1 comments
mlindner 1589 days ago
The fact that business insider (a much discredited tabloid) puts it in an article doesn't make it true either. Falcon 9 is MUCH cheaper than launching on Space Shuttle ever was. Your article is from 5 years ago btw.
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elkos 1588 days ago
Does the federal government pay the same rates we commercial third-parties from abroad get to go to launch?

To my understanding several times the federal government has special requests that can and will drive the launch cost upwards for many (if not all) launch providers.

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mlindner 1588 days ago
> Does the federal government pay the same rates we commercial third-parties from abroad get to go to launch?

Every launch contract is bespoke and the customers can request additional (sometimes significant) amounts of documentation of part providence and the rest. The US government often requests significantly extra documentation so it increases costs quite a bit.

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