There’s a lot of talk in the space industry about how launch costs are on the verge of plummeting. The driving mechanism for this change is said to be SpaceX’s new Starship rocket, a super-heavy lift class vehicle that is intended to be fully reusable.
The comment on the price of a Falcon 9 is a little insincere. Yes, a new booster will cost you upwards of $60 million, but a reused booster IS cheaper, at around $58 million last I checked. Not the super low price drop expected, but there is a saving.
Last published cost for sls was circa 4.2b$. This assumes that the vehicle os extensively used in order to amortise the circa 24b$ dev costs. If starship works as expected, i would be surprised if more than 5 sls launchers are realised. So actual cost would be well north of 5b$ for this fully disposable shuttle tech reheat.
Is Starship Really Going To Revolutionize Launch Costs?
The comment on the price of a Falcon 9 is a little insincere. Yes, a new booster will cost you upwards of $60 million, but a reused booster IS cheaper, at around $58 million last I checked. Not the super low price drop expected, but there is a saving.
Last published cost for sls was circa 4.2b$. This assumes that the vehicle os extensively used in order to amortise the circa 24b$ dev costs. If starship works as expected, i would be surprised if more than 5 sls launchers are realised. So actual cost would be well north of 5b$ for this fully disposable shuttle tech reheat.