DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Privately-funded rocket ready for 2nd try

**Obenuearema** · 03-22-2007, 12:02 AM

Yes, that's a very good point. The solution seems to be to front-load the government customers, if they are willing to take on the risk. DARPA is the designated risk-taker for the U.S. Government. The U.S. government will need launch services until the end of time, so they can make up the cost with price differentials on future launches.

For SpaceX, that means the first private customer will be the 6th launch. MDA of Canada (the folks who built the Canadarm for the Space Station) will be the customer for that launch. The Malaysian space agency is the first non-U.S. Government customer and will take on the 4th launch.

Overall, this problem would go away if there were a private customer that launched frequently. They would be willing to accept some risk on each individual launch, knowing that they would more than make up the difference as they enjoy the price reduction on future launches.

03-22-2007, 12:02 AM	#35
Obenuearema Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 442 Senior Member	Yes, that's a very good point. The solution seems to be to front-load the government customers, if they are willing to take on the risk. DARPA is the designated risk-taker for the U.S. Government. The U.S. government will need launch services until the end of time, so they can make up the cost with price differentials on future launches. For SpaceX, that means the first private customer will be the 6th launch. MDA of Canada (the folks who built the Canadarm for the Space Station) will be the customer for that launch. The Malaysian space agency is the first non-U.S. Government customer and will take on the 4th launch. Overall, this problem would go away if there were a private customer that launched frequently. They would be willing to accept some risk on each individual launch, knowing that they would more than make up the difference as they enjoy the price reduction on future launches.
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