A re-examination of known falcon 9 launch costs shows SpaceX contribution to lowering space launch costs, while real, is much smaller than previously reported due to bad fact checking by the press of a story that went viral
A re-examination of known falcon 9 launch costs shows SpaceX contribution to lowering space launch costs, while real, is much smaller than previously reported due to bad fact checking by the press of a story that went viral
11 Comments
That sub will never accept that. SpaceX is apparently the greatest thing since sliced bread.
If you look at how low their internal costs are for starlink missions, its clear they definitely have the capability to reduce what they charge customers. They don’t need to though cause there really is no competition at the moment
Is this about launch costs or launch prices? Of course SpaceX won’t lower their prices for launches more than necessary, no matter how low their actual launch costs are.
Prices charged to the customer are generally higher than actual operating costs. Who knew!?
Thankfully we have Jedi Masters to educate us on how businesses work… 😏
SpaceX launch *price* is determined by market forces. They’ll sell a launch for the maximum price guaranteed to secure the contract.
SpaceX launch *cost* is a separate question.
Can we leave this FUD slop to Tesla?
Well, we know that from one side real launch costs for StarsX is somewhat noticeable lower then prices (we do not know what are those exactly). We also know that Elon is way overoptimistic and overpriced – that just way he runs. Both things is true.
It is really likely though that prices will fell quicker then 1/2 in 50 years now. And that where we are.
There was a GAO report around 8ish years ago evaluating the total cost of cargo delivery from all the various providers to ISS.
My recollection is that at the time SpaceX was the highest by $per pound of delivery by a modest amount when all government costs were considered.
I would be unsurprised to find out that SpaceXs launch service has hidden costs that make it less competitive that the top line numbers that get gushed over by fans and press.
This person is mixing launch price and cost multiple times in the video. Does he even know the difference? This is not how you break myths, useless content.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[GAO](/r/Space/comments/1k0hpea/stub/mnehfc9 “Last usage”)|(US) Government Accountability Office|
|[ULA](/r/Space/comments/1k0hpea/stub/mneatu8 “Last usage”)|United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture)|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[Starlink](/r/Space/comments/1k0hpea/stub/mneeoc8 “Last usage”)|SpaceX’s world-wide satellite broadband constellation|
Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.
—————-
^([Thread #11265 for this sub, first seen 16th Apr 2025, 12:13])
^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/Space) [^[Contact]](https://hachyderm.io/@Two9A) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)
Putting aside the concerns about the data collection and the random asides for fortune cookie wisdom.
Two different kinds of data are being mixed. One is maximum ability and one is the average present mission. A launch mission isn’t about sending a box of bricks to orbit. Weight isn’t always the limiting factor (sometimes its faring size for example) and the goal isn’t to use up the maximum amount of weight.
Ignorant video with clickbait thumbnail. Neat. Agenda much?