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The question says it all. How much does NASA pay for a new Dragon spacecraft compared to a used one? Similarly, how much would a regular corporation pay for such cargo missions?

Michael Stachowsky
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1 Answers1

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NASA hires transportation service from SpaceX.

It is not the customer that saves until the savings is passed on. SpaceX expects to save ~30%.

Much like hiring a new or used taxi, it's the same rate per kg for each km.

Prices for the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy with a cargo hold (a Dragon) from SpaceX's price page:

  • Falcon 9 costs $62M and can carry up to 22,800 kg (LEO), 8,300 kg (GTO), or 4,020 kg to Mars.

  • Falcon Heavy costs $90M and can carry up to 63,800 kg (LEO), 26,700 kg (GTO), or 16,800 kg to Mars.

Previously NASA used the Space Shuttle, at a cost of $10K / lb. Now NASA pays more per pound but less overall. Much like taking a ride on an old or new bus costs the same bus fare but avoids purchase, storage, maintenance, staffing and regulatory costs of owning a bus.

In an interview with payload specialist and space station engineer Ravi Margasahayam he crunched some numbers and said:

In 2008, NASA signed contracts with SpaceX and its rival aerospace company Orbital Sciences, to the tune of 1.6 billion for 12 launches and 1.9 billion for eight rocket launches, respectively.

While these new missions cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars less than a space shuttle launch, the price of sending cargo into space didn't go down.

Margasahayam told Tech Insider "My cost per pound went up with these rockets, on the shuttle it would be much less." (Margasahayam spoke to Tech Insider as a private citizen and engineer, rather than as a representative of NASA.)

Margasahayam points out that, while the space shuttles were more expensive — a whopping 500 million per launch (or possibly 1.5 billion, according to one analysis we've seen) — each mission carried about 50,000 lbs. (plus seven astronauts!). That means each pound of cargo used to cost about $10,000 to ship on a shuttle.

Orbital Science's Cygnus spacecraft costs over 43 thousand per pound to send things up, dividing the $1.9 billion contract by the maximum 20 metric tons of cargo the company is supposed to supply.

For SpaceX — the cheapest of NASA's new carriers — dividing the cost of each launch (133 million dollars) by the cargo weight of its most recent resupply mission (5,000 lbs.) gives you about $27,000 per pound.

But that's a high estimate. SpaceX told Tech Insider that its Dragon cargo spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket can carry up to 7,300 lbs. — and that you could bring just as much cargo back to Earth, too (something Cygnus can't do). So if a Dragon is full of supplies at launch and on landing, the cost dips to $9,100 per pound.

Rob
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  • The price might go down over time tho. – Antzi Dec 14 '17 at 06:37
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    Mr. Ravi used a misleading example.1, The Space Shuttle also did not always fly full, and when he was carrying only part of the structure on the ISS, then his price was estimated at $ 50,000 per pound. 2, ISS is more appropriate for frequent launches with fresh food, spare parts, experiments less than 10,000 pounds, than once a year 50000 pounds. If Space shtuttle flew so often, it would be about 4 times more expensive than spacex. – Majkl Dec 14 '17 at 14:12
  • @Majkl - I guess that's why it says the same thing at the NASA website, because he works there: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/background/facts/astp.html and SpaceX / Orbital Sciences costs confirmation: https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/dec/HQ_C08-069_ISS_Resupply.html - Sharp eye, you'd better give them a call. – Rob Dec 14 '17 at 20:28
  • @Antzi - The link tells about speculated future costs. – Rob Dec 14 '17 at 20:29