[X] My Assistant

[Guest_DonPMitchell_*]

The use of the Dnepr rockets lately got me wondering, just how much does it cost to launch stuff? We've talked about payload performance of rockets, but not cost and not reliability figures. I couldn't really find this information in one place, so I've spent an hour poking around on a variety of websites:

CODE

Rocket            LEO      GTO     Escape      price       kg/mega$    Launch:Fail
------            ---      ---     ------      -----       --------    -----------

Ariane 5         18,000    6,800             120 million    57 GTO        26:3
Atlas II          8,610    3,720              90 million    41 GTO        63:0
Atlas V 401       9,750    4,950              90 million    55 GTO         8:0
Atlas V HL       25,000   13,605    8,600    130 million   105 GTO
Delta II          5,648    2,133    1,000     50 million    43 GTO       115:2
Delta IV M        9,106    4,231              70 million    60 GTO         5:0
Delta IV Heavy   21,892   12,757             140 million    91 GTO         1:0
Dnepr 1           4,500                       12 million   375 LEO        39:6
Falcon 5          4,100    1,050              18 million    88 GTO         0:0
Falcon 9-S9      24,750    9,650              78 million   124 GTO         0:0
Kosmos 3M         1,500                       12 million   125 LEO       434:20
Long March 3      4,800    1,400              37 million    38 GTO        13:2
Pegasus XL          440                       14 million    31 LEO        11:1
Proton           21,000    5,645    6,220    100 million    56 GTO       238:18
Soyuz             7,400    2,000    1,200     35 million    57 GTO     1,691:101
Titan III        15,400             3,700     70 million   220 LEO       158:13
Titan IV 405     21,680                       90 million   240 LEO        37:4
Tziklon 3         4,100                       22 million   186 LEO       121:8
Zenit 2          13,740                       60 million   229 LEO        37:6
Zenit 3SL                  5,250              85 million    62 GTO        14:2

Some interesting things emerge from seeing all the numbers on one place.

1. The Dnepr is a cheap way to get something into orbit!

2. Launching geosynchronous satellites from the equator is a big win (Ariane, Falcon, Zenit SL).

3. The Falcons will be exciting if they do what they claim.

4. I see over 2000 Russian launches. Why am I missing so many US launches?

5. The R-7 ... wow. (I'm counting all R-7 launches, which is a little unfair, because most failures were very early)

[dvandorn]

I'm sure there are factors in every launch vehicle/spacecraft combination which affect the overall cost of each.

On the one hand, the launch vehicle builder has to adapt its vehicle to a given mission's needs. The Delta II flew in several different configurations, with differing numbers of SRBs and differing size/Isp of SRBs. The Atlas V that launched MRO used no SRBs, and oozed majestically off its pad, while the same basic vehicle, with five SRBs attached, took off with New Horizons like the proverbial bat out of Hell.

These differences in configurations affect cost quite a bit. And it seems to me that American launch vehicles have gotten more alternate-configuration-happy than some other countries' launchers -- ESA and the Russians seem to fly vehicles with fewer available configurations, so their costs are a little easier to estimate.

That might be why it's hard to pin down how much the use of a given American launch vehicle actually costs. The costs vary enough, from one config to the next and from one customer to the next, that the best you can probably hope for is a range, and maybe a set of weighted averages.

-the other Doug