CEV Announcement

ruzicka wrote:
It'll be interesting to see if those cost numbers stay the same or change,
once (if) the United Launch Alliance merges the two launch vehicle lines
into one company.

Since the 1990s, the reported price of an
EELV launch has increased by roughly 50%.
(So that a Delta IV Heavy probably costs
$220-250 million now, etc). The new
Alliance hopes to save perhaps $100 million
per year. With a projected launch rate of
eight per year and an average per-launch
cost of, say, $120 million each, a $100
million cut in costs would result in a
10% price drop - if the Alliance partners
decided to pass the savings on to their
customer(s).

But the ugly truth is that the partners have
lost billions launching these new rockets,
so the cost savings will probably go toward
bottom-line repair rather than toward launch
price cuts.

- Ed Kyle