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If you want to compare SLS and Starship, just recall that the SLS started development after the Falcon 1 flew and at that time SpaceX had been talking about a S
by HWR_14 4y ago
If you want to compare SLS and Starship, just recall that the SLS started development after the Falcon 1 flew and at that time SpaceX had been talking about a SuperHeavy for 6 years. Work on the Raptor engines started around the same time. If you hold them to the original launch date, in terms of "time since deal signing", we already would have seen the return of the 9 people who paid for a flight around the moon on a Starship.
In the grand scheme of things, I don't care about 11 billion as much as I care that it's done and moving.
Also, I cannot find a wikipedia citation for $3 billion/launch. I found one for $2.3 billion/year for SLS launches.
- Gwypaas 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares_V https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares_V
- rrss 4y agothe Wikipedia page for SLS references https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/IG-22-003.pdf https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/IG-22-003.pdf > We project the cost to fly a single SLS/Orion system through at least Artemis IV to be $4.1 billion per launch at a cadence of approximately one mission per year. > The cost per launch was calculated as follows: $1 billion for the Orion based on information provided by ESD officials and NASA OIG analysis; $300 million for the ESA’s Service Module based on the value of a barter agreement between ESA and the United States in which ESA provides the service modules in exchange for offsetting its ISS responsibilities; $2.2 billion for the SLS based on program budget submissions and analysis of contracts; and $568 million for EGS costs related to the SLS/Orion launch as provided by ESD officials.
- HWR_14 4y agoOh, if you go beyond the SLS itself to include all the ancillary costs, then yeah. But adding those same ancillary costs to Starship (assuming it costs SpaceX $150MM to launch it) brings the total to over $2 billion/launch. The payload, people on the ground working for months during the mission, etc. are all included.
- philipwhiuk 4y ago> Oh, if you go beyond the SLS itself to include all the ancillary costs, then yeah. But adding those same ancillary costs to Starship (assuming it costs SpaceX $150MM to launch it) brings the total to over $2 billion/launch. Gonna need a source for that.
- HWR_14 4y agoI just used the same inspector general report as the person I was responding to. Literally that PDF. If you read how they determined $4.1 billion/launch, and change the SLS line item to "Starship, $150MM" it runs to over $2 billion a launch.