[Micele]

Een quote van Elon Musk in 2006:



bron New York Times, feb 2006 toen Musk $100 miljoen eigen geld bijlegde.

NY Times legt ook de context uit en rekent de kosten eens uit wat er toen verspilt werd door de toenmalige Lockheed Martin and Boeing bij de commerciële ruimtevaart.

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/b...ne-before.html

In the commercial market, the United States' two big rocket giants, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, have been priced out by lower-cost competitors from Russia, Ukraine and France. Lockheed's Atlas 5 had only one commercial order in 2005, compared with 22 in 1998. Boeing has withdrawn its Delta 4 rocket from the commercial market and relies exclusively on business from the United States government.

At stake is a market that was worth $4 billion last year, when governments and businesses paid for 55 launchings, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Of those, 18 were commercial, with a value of $1 billion.

American companies compete for commercial orders only by teaming with foreign partners -- often former cold-war foes. Lockheed has teamed up with Khrunichev State Research of Russia to form International Launch Services, which mainly uses Russia's Proton rockets. Boeing has joined with several nations to form a consortium called the Sea Launch; it uses the Ukrainian Zenit 3SL to put up commercial payloads.

Mr. Musk says he wants to develop an all-American option that will be price-competitive and break the duopoly of Lockheed and Boeing on contracts with the federal government. Ultimately, he wants to send people into space, to the moon and beyond.

"We have to do something dramatic to reduce the cost of getting to space," said Mr. Musk in an interview in his cubicle at SpaceX's offices here. "If we can get the cost low, we can extend life to another planet.

SpaceX's first effort, the Falcon 1, will not put anyone on the moon. It is designed to send small satellites -- typically communications and scientific payloads weighing less than 1,000 pounds -- into low orbit, which is up to 300 miles above the Earth. The two-stage Falcon 1 is designed to be mostly recyclable, with part of it falling into the ocean to be picked up and used again.

The Falcon 1 will charge $6.9 million a launching. It is intended to go head to head with the Pegasus rocket made by the Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., which charges $25 million to $30 million for the same launching, as well as rockets from such newcomers as India and Israel.

Next up are the Falcon 5, the same rocket with five engines, and the Falcon 9, with nine engines. The Falcon 9 would bring SpaceX into direct competition with Boeing's Delta 4 and Lockheed's Atlas 5 in the so-called heavy-lift market, in which the United States government is the main customer. A Falcon 5 plans to launch 8,000-pound payloads for $18 million, a third of the price of competitors. The Falcon 9, which will put 10 tons of payload as far as 22,000 miles into the sky, will cost $27 million per launching. The same launching by Lockheed or Boeing would be about $70 million to $80 million.

Expecting that it can compete in this market, SpaceX has sued Boeing and Lockheed in federal court in California, seeking to prevent them from combining their rocket units in a joint venture called the United Launch Alliance, which would have a lock on $32 billion in Air Force launchings through 2011.

Wslk is het 12 jaar later (vandaag) een veelvoud van 1 miljard $, of toch in de toekomst?

Als SpaceX diverse overheidscontracten binnenhaald SPAART de overheid veel geld.

Ook buitenlandse satellieten (bvb Argentinië) worden door SpaceX gelanceerd enz... die contracten krijgt men niet zomaar.

SpaceX blijkt namelijk goedkoper dan andere. Toch heel zeker als men vanuit US-bodem lanceert (Californië). SpaceX heeft wslk nu een eigen basis (Texas)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX#Launch_facilities


Wacht nu gaat er iemand vertellen dat SpaceX overleeft dankzij "de overheid"

US Defense contracts

In 2005, SpaceX announced that it had been awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for Responsive Small Spacelift (RSS) launch services by the United States Air Force, which could allow the Air Force to purchase up to $100 million worth of launches from the company.[185] In April 2008, NASA announced that it had awarded an IDIQ Launch Services contract to SpaceX for up to $1 billion, depending on the number of missions awarded. The contract covers launch services ordered by June 2010, for launches through December 2012.[186] Musk stated in the same 2008 announcement that SpaceX has sold 14 contracts for flights on the various Falcon vehicles.[186] In December 2012, SpaceX announced its first two launch contracts with the United States Department of Defense. The United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center awarded SpaceX two EELV-class missions: Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) and Space Test Program 2 (STP-2). DSCOVR was launched on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle in 2015, while STP-2 will be launched on a Falcon Heavy in 2018.[187]

In May 2015, the United States Air Force announced that the Falcon 9 v1.1 was certified for launching "national security space missions," which allows SpaceX to contract launch services to the Air Force for any payloads classified under national security.[188] This broke the monopoly held since 2006 by ULA over the US Air Force launches of classified payloads.[189]

In April 2016, the U.S. Air Force awarded the first such national security launch, an $82.7 million contract to SpaceX to launch the 2nd GPS III satellite in May 2018; this estimated cost was approximately 40% less than the estimated cost for similar previous missions.[190][191][192] Prior to this, United Launch Alliance was the only provider certified to launch national security payloads.[193][193][194] ULA did not submit a bid for the May 2018 launch.[195][196]

In 2016 the US National Reconnaissance Office said it had purchased launches from SpaceX - the first (for NROL-76) took place on 1 May 2017.[197]

In March 2017 SpaceX won (vs ULA) with a bid of $96.5 million for the 3rd GPS III launch (due Feb 2019).[198]

In March 2018, SpaceX secured an additional $290 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to launch three next generation GPS satellites, known as GPS III. The first of these launches is expected to take place in March 2020.[199]

International contracts

Kazakhstan

SpaceX won a contract to launch two Kazakhstan's satellites aboard the Falcon 9 launch rocket on a rideshare with other satellites. The takeoff was scheduled for November 19, 2018. According to the Kazakh Defence and Aerospace Ministry, the launch from SpaceX would cost the country $1.3 million.[200] The two small satellites are named KazSaySat and KazistiSat.[201]

Maar goed dat de USA SpaceX heeft dan stijgt de US-overheidsschuld niet zo hard...