I'm guessing he meant $250m a year not per launch.
There's another way to look at "loss". Businesses often estimate what they'd charge for a comparable service/product, and then cite the difference as a loss.
Quote from: Space Ghost 1962 on 03/16/2016 04:20 amThere's another way to look at "loss". Businesses often estimate what they'd charge for a comparable service/product, and then cite the difference as a loss.This would at least take him down from 'completely insane' to 'oh that seems high still'. In a way it kind of makes sense to speak in terms that still within your own capability. In order for for YOU to match their service you'd be losing about 250m per launch.The interesting thing about this is that it makes the corollary statement that they would charge on the order of 310m for a equivalent launch...which is a staggering amount of money. Ironically, this under cuts statements that Gass make in front of congress that their prices are not that high because EELV launch capability payments don't count towards prices for launch as put forth by spaceX. Now I want to know if he was just spitballing numbers or accidentally letting on their costs/prices.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this is not really how ULA views SpaceX. If they're really that delusional, they're screwed.
btw. Tory has now weighted in:https://twitter.com/torybruno/status/710125441529487360Quote.@jsutton101 These ill-advised statements do not reflect ULA’s views or our relationship with our valuable suppliers. We welcome competitionSounds like someone just was thrown under the bus.
.@jsutton101 These ill-advised statements do not reflect ULA’s views or our relationship with our valuable suppliers. We welcome competition
“Compare it to having two fiancées, two possible brides,” Tobey said of ULA’s approach to the two. “Blue Origin is a super-rich girl, and then there is this poor girl over here, Aerojet Rocketdyne. But we have to continue to go to planned rehearsal dinners, buy cakes and all the rest with both.
Where's the popcorn? From the spacenews.com article:Quote“Compare it to having two fiancées, two possible brides,” Tobey said of ULA’s approach to the two. “Blue Origin is a super-rich girl, and then there is this poor girl over here, Aerojet Rocketdyne. But we have to continue to go to planned rehearsal dinners, buy cakes and all the rest with both.
So many feet and only one mouth. We need a popcorn emoticon.
I just read through this, and found myself nodding my head in agreement most of the time. The "quarter-billion" per launch loss estimate was clearly hyperbole, but I don't think that anyone really believes SpaceX is making a profit on $60 million per launch. Perhaps the speaker was thinking of what it might cost to launch Falcon Heavy versus the price that SpaceX has listed for a launch. Interesting to hear that Blue blew up an engine in testing. It sounded like it may have been a BE-3 power head a while back.I also was interested in how the speaker thought that the first stage landing was amazing, but that the entire idea of recovery is "dumb" given the lost payload and the costs of refurbishment. - Ed Kyle
Quote from: edkyle99 on 03/16/2016 05:09 pmI just read through this, and found myself nodding my head in agreement most of the time. The "quarter-billion" per launch loss estimate was clearly hyperbole, but I don't think that anyone really believes SpaceX is making a profit on $60 million per launch. Perhaps the speaker was thinking of what it might cost to launch Falcon Heavy versus the price that SpaceX has listed for a launch. Interesting to hear that Blue blew up an engine in testing. It sounded like it may have been a BE-3 power head a while back.I also was interested in how the speaker thought that the first stage landing was amazing, but that the entire idea of recovery is "dumb" given the lost payload and the costs of refurbishment. - Ed KyleNobody believes SpaceX is making a $60 million profit on their launches, materials and working hours have costs. I've always thought that they make no profit on their ordinary launches, cost to produce and launch is $60million and selling price is 60$. I think the only launches they make anything on is government (NASA and soon DOD).