From Moscow to Paris to Washington, SpaceX's ultra-cheap launch costs are the talk of the town(s).
In Russia, Roscosmos' head (and the country's deputy prime minister) complains that SpaceX's launch business is "stepping on our toes." Europe is flummoxed, too, warning that SpaceX's rocket prices are simply too cheap to beat. Meanwhile, in Washington, NASA and the Pentagon are both jumping at the chance to put satellites into orbit at prices as low as $62 million a pop.
And now, SpaceX prices are going even lower.
Image source: NASA.
A watershed in space launch
When SpaceX landed its first rocket back on Earth in 2015 -- then went on to land multiple rockets on both sides of the country, and even at sea -- company COO Gwynne Shotwell made a bold prediction: Switching to reusable rockets would drive down SpaceX's cost of launch by 30%.
Such a promise, if fulfilled, would push down SpaceX prices from merely cheaper than anybody else's into bargain-outlet territory -- and now it seems SpaceX is delivering on its promise.
Just last week, NASA announced that it is awarding SpaceX the contract to launch its newest satellite, the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), carrying a set of deep-space exploratory telescopes, aboard a Falcon 9 reusable rocket. The launch price: approximately $50.3 million, including the cost of the rocket, the launch, and other "mission-related costs."
This is a steal of a deal: $50.3 million is 19% less than the advertised launch cost of a not-yet-flight-proven Falcon 9. Not only that -- it's probably close to a 48% discount off the average cost of previous government missions launched on the Falcon 9.
The ups and downs of government contracts
How do we know this? Historically, while SpaceX has been able to price its Falcon 9 launches at $62 million and its Falcon Heavy at $90 million, this was the cost for commercial customers only. Government launches, burdened by piles of paperwork wrapped in the mountains of red tape needed to comply with federal regulations, have historically cost as much as 50% more than SpaceX's advertised "retail" prices -- or as high as $97 million for a Falcon 9.
This NASA launch is a government launch. And yet, it's selling for not $97 million, not $62 million, but just $50 million.
Commenting on the contract, Shotwell noted that "IXPE will serve as SpaceX's sixth contracted mission [for NASA], two of which were successfully launched in 2016 and 2018." Three more -- the SWOT, Sentinel-6A, and DART -- are awaiting launch.