As a former engineer on the Atlas V launch vehicle program, I'm so excited to see the commercialization of spaceflight come to fruition. The latest projections I've seen have the Dragon and Falcon 9 coming in at 20% of the price of an equivalent Atlas V / Delta IV (EELV) launch. Comparative Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) costs are even lower than that. (I'd love if any SpaceX employees can comment further on any of this with more detail.)
As I've seen firsthand, the waste in typical defense contractor programs is obscene – it's so great to see someone doing something about it. Hopefully with much lower cost to orbit, we'll see a revitalization of the commercial launch market as well.
It's also worth mentioning that SpaceX is possibly even significantly cheaper than their commercial competitors. If you look up the other company mentioned in the article, Orbital Science Corporation it says they have a contract with NASA for 8 launches for 1.9 Billion to do the same thing. SpaceX has a contract for 1.6 Billion for 12 launches. That's 50% more flights for 15% less cost.
Been waiting for this. I did some embedded C programming for the docking of the Dragon to the ISS two years ago as an intern. I wish them the best of luck. Check out for updates on this: http://www.spacex.com/updates.php
Spectator here: I too am so excited about the upcoming launch I have been hanging out for it and wish them the best of luck too (even though luck has nothing to do with it and plain good engineering does).
I read the SpaceX pages, reports and updates with the same excitement I had when I read about the Saturn V, the Apollo craft the Lunar Lander, the Shuttle, and the engineering and esp. the control computers behind and embedded in all those craft.
To be involved with SpaceX, designing systems and writing and testing the software and the hardware systems they control must be very exciting right now. That would be something!
[+] [-] mpakes|14 years ago|reply
As I've seen firsthand, the waste in typical defense contractor programs is obscene – it's so great to see someone doing something about it. Hopefully with much lower cost to orbit, we'll see a revitalization of the commercial launch market as well.
[+] [-] pmorici|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] amirmansour|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JulianMorrison|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 1point2|14 years ago|reply
I read the SpaceX pages, reports and updates with the same excitement I had when I read about the Saturn V, the Apollo craft the Lunar Lander, the Shuttle, and the engineering and esp. the control computers behind and embedded in all those craft.
To be involved with SpaceX, designing systems and writing and testing the software and the hardware systems they control must be very exciting right now. That would be something!
[+] [-] kleiba|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alexchamberlain|14 years ago|reply
And I thought shipping in the UK was expensive...
[+] [-] ceejayoz|14 years ago|reply