NASA to Pay Russia $51M Per Manned Launch

[BlueJessamine]

Source: Daily Tech

As the U.S. space agency prepares to retire the current fleet of space shuttles, it knew there would be a price to pay for relying on the Russian space agency for space travel. That price is estimated to be $51 million USD for each trip from Earth to the International Space Station (ISS), several Russian news agencies have reported.

Starting in 2012, Roskosmos will begin to charge for each launch that has NASA astronauts, Anatoly Perminov said during a press conference. The shuttles will be retired in 2010, though it's unknown what price will be paid for the first two years of space travel.

Roskosmos charged NASA $21.8 million for a flight to the ISS in 2006, but space tourists now pay upwards of $35 million for a two-week stay aboard the ISS. Even though Russia will be responsible for ferrying NASA astronauts into orbit, the agency will continue to take paying tourists into space.

When NASA officially retires the shuttle next year, each partner nation will also be forced to rely on Russia to transport astronauts into space. The next-generation Ares I/Orion space technology isn't scheduled to be released until 2014 – at the earliest – so NASA will need to purchase multiple trips into space aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.



Read more: http://www.dailytech.com/NASA+to+Pay+Russia+51M+Per+Manned+Launch/article15136.htm

[Demeter]

1. Outsourcing Where No Man Has Gone Before

This is shameful.

Tell Krushchev he won.

[harmonicon]

3. no, he lost, but the wrong side won

capitalism won, and that's what we're seeing at work here.

[Soylent Brice]

2. wow!!!

that's AWESOME!!! :sarcasm:

[ixion]

4. The multi-nationals and our own government simply can't stomach doing things here at home

instead, we outsource everything... until (wait for it) we do NOTHING here! :woohoo: (:sarcasm:)

This is one of the reasons we're are screwed, and one of the things that will, apparently, continue to screw us well on into the future. :(

[tomm2thumbs]

5. personally I'm outsourcing my outsourcing to another country - but I don't know who

the person who tracks that for me was outsourced so I'll have my outsourced people get back to your outsourced people

[DS1]

6. Cheap

[Romulox]

7. A massive waste of money on a complete boondoggle. nt

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. Is $51M a deal?

What does a shuttle trip cost now? More or less than $51M?

Either way, it's money poorly spent. I'm not sure what the space station is supposed to do for anyone, other than bragging rights.

:hi:

[Posteritatis]

9. Shuttle missions are 10-20 times more expensive most of the time (nt)

[tocqueville]

12. a shuttle launch costs $1.3 billion for 21 ton

an Ariane launch $300 millions for the same payload

[happyslug]

13. ???

Maximum payload to Low Earth Obit (LEO) for the Shuttle is 24,400 kg.
To Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit it is only 3,810, first launch was in 1981.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payload_(air_and_space_craft)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle

The Arinne numbers are as follows (First flight in 1996):
LEO: 16,000 kg (21,000 in latest version).
GTO: 6,200 kg (10,500 in latest version).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_5

The US Delta IV rocket has the following capacity:
LEO: 25,800 kg
GTO: 10,843 kg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_IV

The Russian uses the "Proton" and it has been the most successful rocket of all times, till 1989 when the Delta IV was launched, this was the most powerful rocket in the world (The Saturn V beat it out, but production of that ended in the early 1970s).
LEO: 22,000
GTO: 6,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(rocket)

[tocqueville]

14. ok counted on 24 tons

Per-launch costs can be measured by dividing the total cost over the life of the program (including buildings, facilities, training, salaries, etc) by the number of launches. With 115 missions (as of 6 August 2006), and a total cost of $150 billion ($145 billion as of early 2005 + $5 billion for 2005,<19> this gives approximately $1.3 billion per launch. Another method is to calculate the incremental (or marginal) cost differential to add or subtract one flight — just the immediate resources expended/saved/involved in that one flight. This is about $60 million U. S. dollars.<21>

Early cost estimates of $118 per pound ($260/kg) of payload were based on marginal or incremental launch costs, and based on 1972 dollars and assuming a 65,000 pound (30 000 kg) payload capacity.<22><23> Correcting for inflation, this equates to roughly $36 million incremental per launch costs. Compared to this, today's actual incremental per launch costs are about two thirds more, or $60 million per launch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_program

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_heavy_lift_launch_systems

to be fair Ariane is a "simpler system" and expendable. The Shuttle can do much more things even compared with an Ariane V with coming crew vehicle. But to launch satellites an Ariane or a Delta or a Proton (the only other operational heavy lifts) are much cheaper.

besides regarding Proton it stands "which makes it one of the most successful heavy boosters in the history of spaceflight"... not THE most.

You cannot compare with a Saturn which had a completely different function

As of 2006, Arianespace held more than 60 percent of the world market for boosting satellites to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).<4> More than 240 commercial launches have occurred since May 22, 1984, and Arianespace states that the total number of launch contracts signed since Ariane launches commenced operations in 1984 is 285

Arianespace and EADS owns now "half of Soyouz" which will permit independent maned flights from Guaina

Soyuz ACTS (2012/....)

Soyuz ACTS (Advanced Crew Transportation System), also known as Soyuz-K, is a proposed version of the Soyuz design capable of achieving lunar orbit. The upgrades could include a new habitation module developed by the European Space Agency. A novel, rocket-based precision landing system may also be implemented.<3> Missions could be launched from Baikonur or Guiana Space Centre.<4>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(spacecraft)

[friendly_iconoclast]

15. Wish Arianespace would hurry up with that crew vehicle..

I don't like human access off the planet controlled by a monopoly (or duopoly)

[tocqueville]

17. in the best case 2017 nt

[mbperrin]

11. The tech we live in was all developed as a result of the space program.

Chips, data and image processing, medical sensors, miniaturization, you name it.

Space program has returned many trillions in return for the pittance spent.

War, now, is a complete and utter waste, and we spend many times more on that....

[Vidar]

10. USA: too corrupt to survive.

[daleo]

16. A true capitalist would charge a dollar to go up

And a billion to come back down. Russia's still learning.