[X] My Assistant

[mchan]

Outside of working for a launcher manufacturer and having access to proprietary information, the figures one would find from any published sources should all be taken with some grains of salt.

[Rakhir]

talking of which...when will be the first soyuz launch from Kourou?

It is still planned for the second half of 2008 but it will probably shift to 2009.

[Guest_DonPMitchell_*]

What type of missions are planned to use the Soyuz from an equatorial launch?

[Guest_DonPMitchell_*]

Another data point for the cost of an Atlas V, 401 configuration:

NASA announced today the award of launch services for the Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter mission to Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch
Services Inc. of Littleton, Colo. The total cost of launch services
for NASA, which includes spacecraft processing, and associated
mission integration services such as telemetry support and
mission-unique items is $136.2 million dollars.

[GravityWaves]

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)

The reason you're seeing so many Russian launches is because Plesetsk and Baikonur have been the most active launch pads in the world

[dvandorn]

The reason you're seeing so many Russian launches is because Plesetsk and Baikonur have been the most active launch pads in the world

That's, um, sort of circular logic, isn't it? It's sort of like saying "The reason you see so many babies in this town is because this town has one of the busiest maternity wards in the world." Both sides of that equation reflect a result without recognizing a real cause.

-the other Doug

[GravityWaves]

That's, um, sort of circular logic, isn't it?

Not really because it still depends on how good your pad and launcher are and how reliable a nation's launch service is with each pad - there are at least 7 other Russian and American pads I didn't mention, Wallops, 'Space-pork' Kodiak, US aircraft launches, SLC launcher, Kapustin yar, Svobodny and Russian sub launches. You could probably count all the launches from these 7 pads on both hands - while the Chinese Long March and the European Kourou would be far more active. Plesetsk and Baikonur have been built to launch the best rockets and none of the other Russian pads are able to launch a Soyuz.