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SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow

nasa.gov

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Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow

#51

Post by InclinedPlane »

ebiester wrote: post #49
InclinedPlane wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, let's take the Shuttle off the table, which is no longer in service and was by far the most expensive launch vehicle in extensive service in history. Right now, the price of a Falcon 9 launch is around $50mil, this translates to $4.8/g to LEO or $16.7/g to GTO (which is where most satellites go). This compares very favorably to the price of other western launchers (Atlas V: $18/g, Ariane 5: $21/g, Delta IV: $1…

Are we sure about this healthy profit? Is it possible they're just using this to try and beta their vehicle at lower cost?

Rather certain. Several folks have looked into SpaceX's cost structure and come to that conclusion, including NASA. They haven't paid off the development cost yet but they do run an incremental profit on each launch.

Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow

#53

Post by bishnu »

slug wrote: post #37
cryptoz wrote: post #7

I can't wait! SpaceX is the most amazing company right now. They're work is the exact opposite of the trivial-to-start social networking apps, the tedium of online advertising. They want to send people to Mars . And they're launching to the ISS tomorrow, the most expensive object ever built by humanity. They have the world's trust. They have the world's best engineers. And they have some intense ambition and lots of…

I would love to work there but they only recruit U.S. citizens and although I was contacted by them last year, it ended up going nowhere when I mentioned this "small" detail. Can you elaborate on your phone interview?

This potentially has to do with regulations in the US over access to rocket technology. I knew a Canadian who worked at Lockheed ~10 years ago who had to be shuffled off a certain project due to objections from the US State Department.

Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow

#54

Post by grinich »

ebiester wrote: post #49
InclinedPlane wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, let's take the Shuttle off the table, which is no longer in service and was by far the most expensive launch vehicle in extensive service in history. Right now, the price of a Falcon 9 launch is around $50mil, this translates to $4.8/g to LEO or $16.7/g to GTO (which is where most satellites go). This compares very favorably to the price of other western launchers (Atlas V: $18/g, Ariane 5: $21/g, Delta IV: $1…

Are we sure about this healthy profit? Is it possible they're just using this to try and beta their vehicle at lower cost?

There's no freemium model when you're building rocket ships.

Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow

#55

Post by 38f0ia »

cryptoz wrote: post #7

I can't wait! SpaceX is the most amazing company right now. They're work is the exact opposite of the trivial-to-start social networking apps, the tedium of online advertising. They want to send people to Mars . And they're launching to the ISS tomorrow, the most expensive object ever built by humanity. They have the world's trust. They have the world's best engineers. And they have some intense ambition and lots of…

Right on, dude.

Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow

#56

Post by CamperBob2 »

kmm wrote: post #42
StevenRayOrr wrote: post #34

I get caught up in the romantics of this. We could be explorers again like Magellan or Shackleton, this time charting the vast, infinitude of the stars. We could see planets and moons that are but specks in a telescope. It has been so easy, over the last few years, to become jaded with politics and our society and the minutia of technology. SpaceX gets me excited about "the future (of our species)" which hasn't happe…

Doesn't it bother you that you won't be the one doing the exploring? I'm insanely envious of these people and sometimes I wish manned spaceflight would end. Standing on the Moon sounds like the most amazing experience I can imagine and it pains me that I won't ever get there and even if I would, I would just be the umpteenth tourist, littering up the place.

It's almost a cliche on the Intarwebs, but it might help you to read some Dawkins, specifically The Selfish Gene.

The progress of a species does not happen for the benefit of individual members, and that's true for us as humans as well. In that sense, as long as someone makes it, we all make it.

(Which is why it bothers me that so much is apparently riding on this one mission. The job of carrying human spaceflight forward is too much responsibility for one man, one company, or even one government, and Musk might do well to remind everyone of that before the launch.)

Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow

#57

Post by ebiester »

grinich wrote: post #54
ebiester wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we sure about this healthy profit? Is it possible they're just using this to try and beta their vehicle at lower cost?

There's no freemium model when you're building rocket ships.

Think dumping, not freemium.

Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow

#58

Post by IJD »

timjahn wrote: post #12
mkr-hn wrote: post #2

There's a live discussion on the launch here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/edu_flash.html

Watching this live discussion is fascinating. There's a teacher who teaches 7 and 8 year olds asking how their love for Legos and video games could translate into a career in space exploration. A career in space exploration. That's real today. Just imagine how much more real it will be when those 7 and 8 year olds are all grown up. Amazing!

I run the computer lab at an elementary school, and I make sure to tell all my classes that if they are willing to work hard for it, they could move to Mars at some point during their lives.

At the rate SpaceX is going, the students I have now are going to witness an incredible amount of major advancements in space travel and related technologies. I try to make sure they all know this, and some are already coming into the computer lab during break to talk about space exploration, careers in space, etc. These are just 5th graders! It makes me almost as excited to see their interest as I am to about missions like this.

Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow

#59

Post by tadfisher »

eupharis wrote: post #41
Arjuna wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Can you give some numbers for some of the "vast" cost difference we're talking about (even if they're ballpark figures)?" "Q. How much does it cost to launch a Space Shuttle? A. The average cost to launch a Space Shuttle is about $450 million per mission." [1] [1] http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/shuttl... "The average price of a full-up NASA Dragon cargo mission to the International Space Stati…

Cost per kilo to Low Earth Orbit (LEO): Space Shuttle: $19, 824 per kg [1] Soyuz-2: $5,333 per kg [2] Falcon 9: $5,167 per kg [3] At the moment, the Falcon 9 is not that much cheaper than the Soyuz. Elon Musk's talk of $1,100 per kg lies in the future. SpaceX is hoping that making all the parts reusable and its new Falcon Heavy (Which will carry five times as much as the Falcon 9) will cause launch costs to plummet l…

Not cost per kilo, price. These numbers aren't comparable as-is, you have to look at the cost structure.

Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow

#60

Post by [deleted] »

eupharis wrote: post #41
Arjuna wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Can you give some numbers for some of the "vast" cost difference we're talking about (even if they're ballpark figures)?" "Q. How much does it cost to launch a Space Shuttle? A. The average cost to launch a Space Shuttle is about $450 million per mission." [1] [1] http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/shuttl... "The average price of a full-up NASA Dragon cargo mission to the International Space Stati…

Cost per kilo to Low Earth Orbit (LEO): Space Shuttle: $19, 824 per kg [1] Soyuz-2: $5,333 per kg [2] Falcon 9: $5,167 per kg [3] At the moment, the Falcon 9 is not that much cheaper than the Soyuz. Elon Musk's talk of $1,100 per kg lies in the future. SpaceX is hoping that making all the parts reusable and its new Falcon Heavy (Which will carry five times as much as the Falcon 9) will cause launch costs to plummet l…

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