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Real Delta IV Cost?
According to it's press release, Boeing's recent $835 million
Delta IV write-off covered 24 contracted launches, meaning (as I understand it) that the company was loosing an average of $34.8 million on each launch. The original EELV contract for Delta IV was 19 launches for $1.88 billion, including $500 million for research and development, or an average of $99 million for each launch. Does this mean that an average Delta IV mission really costs $99 million + $34.8 million = $133.8 million? - Ed Kyle |
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Real Delta IV Cost?
ed kyle wrote:
According to it's press release, Boeing's recent $835 million Delta IV write-off covered 24 contracted launches, meaning (as I understand it) that the company was loosing an average of $34.8 million on each launch. The original EELV contract for Delta IV was 19 launches for $1.88 billion, including $500 million for research and development, or an average of $99 million for each launch. Does this mean that an average Delta IV mission really costs $99 million + $34.8 million = $133.8 million? You'll never really know the answer, but that certainly sounds like it's in the ballpark - maybe a little low, but certainly not off by a factor of more than about 2. Brett |
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Real Delta IV Cost?
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Real Delta IV Cost?
ed kyle wrote:
According to it's press release, Boeing's recent $835 million Delta IV write-off covered 24 contracted launches, meaning (as I understand it) that the company was loosing an average of $34.8 million on each launch. The original EELV contract for Delta IV was 19 launches for $1.88 billion, including $500 million for research and development, or an average of $99 million for each launch. Does this mean that an average Delta IV mission really costs $99 million + $34.8 million = $133.8 million? First off, your math is off. $1380 million / 19 launches = $72.6 million / launch +$835 million / 24 launches = $34.8 million / launch ---------------------------------------------------- $107.4 million / launch Second, to answer your question, it depends. Boeing spent at least $1.5 billion of its own money developing Delta IV. How you apportion that sunk cost over its expected lifetime will determine what you get for an "average" cost. Clearly, the marginal cost of a Delta IV is pretty cheap. Mike ----- Michael Kent Apple II Forever!! St. Peters, MO |
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Real Delta IV Cost?
ed kyle wrote:
Could this be an example of how Ike was right about the military- industrial complex? Here we have an innovative, competitive corporation (several merged ones, actually) that has become so lethargically dependant on government weening that it can no longer compete in the world market. Of all the "companies" in the "commercial" launch market, you accuse Boeing of government weening? Krunichev, RSC Energia, and Arianespace are all goverment owned, and NASDA is a government agency. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are the only truly private* companies in the business. No, this is an expample of government-subsidized competition killing off a superior product. Boeing spent $1.75 billion of its own money to meet requirements of the EELV contract that were waived for Lockheed Martin, and Arianespace got nearly $12 billion in subsidies to build Ariane V. The companies building Russian and Ukranian rockets frequently don't even pay their workers, let alone repay the cost of their development. The fact is that Boeing built the world's only truly commercial large launch vehicle and is now paying the price of trying to compete against most of the major world governments. Mike * "Private" meaning not government owned. They are obviously publicly traded. ----- Michael Kent Apple II Forever!! St. Peters, MO |
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Real Delta IV Cost?
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