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there might be circumstances where it is price competitive in the market (certainly when launched from Kourou vs. the US).
by janc_ 3y ago
there might be circumstances where it is price competitive in the market (certainly when launched from Kourou vs. the US).
- asadotzler 3y agoI don't think so. ArianeSpace's best price for an Ariane 6 launch, with all the subsidies applied, is gonna be around $75 million, maybe more. SpaceX's sticker is $67 million for Falcon 9 and they've been known to come down $10 million or even more to win an important contract (while still preserving fairly healthy profit margins). I don't think there is a single case where a customer would pick Ariane 6 over Falcon 9 except for political reasons.
- rq1 3y agoAnd your prices don’t even take into account the difference in payloads. (Favorable to Falcon) The price/kg is 3-4x higher for Ariane.
- janc_ 3y agoThere is also launch windows etc. Not everyone can or wants to wait forever. And IIRC Ariane 6 can also bring up somewhat heavier payloads because they launch from closer to the equator?