Space Ship One Cost Estimates

06/12/04 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

p. A few days ago someone asked what my estimates were for the cost of a Space Ship One flight. I guesstimated this based on some rather flimsy numbers:

p.

Consumables | |Nitrous|$2,000.00| | |Oxygen|$500.00 | |Cold Gas|$500.00 | |Fuel Grain|$4,000.00 | |TPS|$500.00 | |CTN|$10,000.00 | |WK Fuel|$1000 |Subtotal| |$18,500.00

| |Labor

| |Pilot|$1,750.00 | |Ground crew|$4,375.00 |Subtotal| |$6,125.00

|Total| |$24,625.00 p. But then I found this (via Hobby Space) in a Washington Post article: bq. Rutan, who gained widespread renown in 1986 when his Voyager became the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe without refueling, estimates that commercial suborbital flights could cost $30,000 to $50,000 “initially,” and as little as $7,000 to $12,000 in a “second generation.” Which suggests I'm not smoking to much crack considering the kind of margins Burt will want and cost savings from volume production. A 100% margin puts you in the $50,000 range for the price to the end customer. Feel free to rip my numbers apart. I computed the nitrous cost based on rough estimates of the tank volume and an industrial nitrous cost of $1.50. The CTN and grain costs were definite swags. comments powered by Disqus