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A typical weather satellite carries a price tag of $290 million; a spy satellite might cost an additional $100 million ~ https://science.howstuffworks.com/sate

A typical weather satellite carries a price tag of $290 million; a spy satellite might cost an additional $100 million ~ https://science.howstuffworks.com/satellite10.htm https://science.howstuffworks.com/satellite10.htm The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) asked the aerospace and defense giant to build it at least three, and potentially as many as seven, new next-generation Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) sats. If all options are exercised, the total contract value will reach $2.3 billion. Bad news for Lockheed Martin: That works out to $324.3 million per satellite. ~ https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/06/30/lockheed-martin-wins-23-billion-weather-satellite/ https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/06/30/lockheed-martin-wi... It's generally agreed that ~ $90 million for a sat launch is less than a third of a ~$300 million per sat build cost.

dzhiurgis 1y ago
And have you got a source thats not a nearly 2 decades old and not for government contract? Edit: here's one thats $30M https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/05/electron-tropics-launch-1/ https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/05/electron-tropics-lau...
- defrost 1y ago
  > have you got a source thats not a nearly 2 decades old Such as the Lockheed Martin 2024 contract I linked? Sure.. try that link, it's from last year and talks about grown up big boy weather sat costs in 2024.. Your $30m SmallSat is not in the same league as a full featured $300m sat .. I'll leave you to work out the differences. Moreover the launch costs for those $30m sats is under $8m each launch, again refuting an upstream claim about launch costs being higher than sat build costs. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Lab_Electron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Lab_Electron The starting price for delivering payloads to orbit is about US$7.5 million per launch, or US$25,000 per kg, which offers the only dedicated service at this price point.
  - dzhiurgis 1y ago
    I had a bit of a chat with chatgpt and I agree the smallsats are not replacement just yet, but in future there's no doubt they are better in most ways - faster iteration, far better resolution and of course lower cost.

dzhiurgis 1y ago

And have you got a source thats not a nearly 2 decades old and not for government contract? Edit: here's one thats $30M https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/05/electron-tropics-launch-1/ https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/05/electron-tropics-lau...

defrost 1y ago
> have you got a source thats not a nearly 2 decades old Such as the Lockheed Martin 2024 contract I linked? Sure.. try that link, it's from last year and talks about grown up big boy weather sat costs in 2024.. Your $30m SmallSat is not in the same league as a full featured $300m sat .. I'll leave you to work out the differences. Moreover the launch costs for those $30m sats is under $8m each launch, again refuting an upstream claim about launch costs being higher than sat build costs. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Lab_Electron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Lab_Electron The starting price for delivering payloads to orbit is about US$7.5 million per launch, or US$25,000 per kg, which offers the only dedicated service at this price point.
- dzhiurgis 1y ago
  I had a bit of a chat with chatgpt and I agree the smallsats are not replacement just yet, but in future there's no doubt they are better in most ways - faster iteration, far better resolution and of course lower cost.