05-01-2014, 05:02 PM
I read that the fuel for each launch 'only' costs SpaceX about $200,00-$400,000. The booster stage represents the lion's share of the overall launch price tag, which I believe was in the $70,000,000 range. If they can reuse the booster stage, that would make SpaceX's launches crazy cheap compared to everyone else. They're contracted with NASA for a certain number of launches at the higher price. The faster that they can reuse the boosters the more money that they can make through the remainder of the contract. The other private launch companies must be terrified. It's pretty hard to ignore an 80% price differential. Even the military can't hand out no-bid contracts to ULA with that much of a cost difference.