• NASA to pay $70m a seat to fly astronauts on Russian spacecraft, domestic launches delayed past 2017
    22 replies, posted
[QUOTE]NASA has signed a new deal that will keep American astronauts flying on Russian spacecraft through early 2017 at a cost of $70.7 million per seat — about $8 million more per astronaut than the previous going rate. The $424 million deal, which was announced today (April 30), is good for six seats aboard Russia's Soyuz space capsules. Under the agreement, Soyuz vehicles will now ferry NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station through 2016, with return and rescue services extending until June 2017. The previous contract provided Soyuz flights for NASA astronauts through 2015, at a cost of roughly $62.7 million per seat. NASA has been dependent on the Soyuz since the retirement of its space shuttle fleet in July 2011. The agency is currently encouraging American private spaceflight firms to develop their own astronaut taxis under its Commercial Crew Program. NASA had hoped that at least one homegrown crew-carrying spaceship would be up and running by 2015, but Congress' failure to fully fund Commercial Crew has made that impossible, agency chief Charles Bolden said. NASA officials are now targeting 2017 for the first American astronauts to fly on commercial spacecraft. [/QUOTE] [URL="http://www.space.com/20897-nasa-russia-astronaut-launches-2017.html"]Space[/URL]
[b]maybe[/B] this will get people to start caring about NASA more if they fear that it won't be American anymore ( I am just guessing what some people will/might fear)
Well, I can't say that Im surprised.
Feels like it'd just be cheaper to still be doing their own damn launches. Nope, military needs more tanks, cut the budget again.
Why is this stuff always so expensive. Who is this money going to, why are the materials so expensive.
[QUOTE=Vasili;40484720]Why is this stuff always so expensive. Who is this money going to, why are the materials so expensive.[/QUOTE] Fuck load of fuel.
[QUOTE=Vasili;40484720]Why is this stuff always so expensive. Who is this money going to, why are the materials so expensive.[/QUOTE] These rockets are expendable, so part of the seat cost has to go into the building cost of the rockets. It's like having to build a new 747 for each flight. Plane tickets would be millions if that were the case.
[QUOTE=Ice Tea;40484735]Fuck load of fuel.[/QUOTE] Nope. Fuel is cheap as fuck in comparison to the rest of the stuff actually.
space age materials and perfect assembly, if its not perfect it can blow up
As someone who works in the space industry, goddamn MilSpec. I feel guilty sometimes, knowing that at some car company there's probably a team trying to figure out how they can shave a few cents off of a component, while I'm here mucking about with parts that cost 5k+ to machine. Literally, pieces of metal that weigh less than a pound end up costing more than an entire car.
[QUOTE=FunnyBunny;40484854]As someone who works in the space industry, goddamn MilSpec. I feel guilty sometimes, knowing that at some car company there's probably a team trying to figure out how they can shave a few cents off of a component, while I'm here mucking about with parts that cost 5k+ to machine. Literally, pieces of metal that weigh less than a pound end up costing more than an entire car.[/QUOTE] It's amazing that the government just puts up with companies overcharging them thousands of times what they should be paying. [editline]30th April 2013[/editline] Reminds me of a scandal in my state, a company was contracted to redo the state websites for free. The company did the websites, but then billed the state 2 million dollars for it even though it was supposed to be free.
$424 million for 6 people to fly to the ISS. A Dragon launch is supposed to cost around $140 million and carry 7 people in one shot. What the fuck, NASA? Tell the Russians to jam their Gemini-era Soyuz up their asses and start investing in domestic private options.
[QUOTE=Vasili;40484720]Why is this stuff always so expensive. Who is this money going to, why are the materials so expensive.[/QUOTE] Quality first class seating.
this is just another example of why we need to get our freekin shit togather, prity soon we'll be paying enough to build an entire damn rocket for the price of 2 seats [editline]30th April 2013[/editline] also this new round of contracts is just because congress decided to defund nasa's manned space program, if they got the funds they needed 4 years ago, they wouldnt have to buy tickets through 2017, the orion would be on schedule and the SLS would be testing this year
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;40485161]$424 million for 6 people to fly to the ISS. A Dragon launch is supposed to cost around $140 million and carry 7 people in one shot. What the fuck, NASA? Tell the Russians to jam their Gemini-era Soyuz up their asses and start investing in domestic private options.[/QUOTE] That money is needed for the defence budget.
[QUOTE=isreal?;40485395]That money is needed for the defence budget.[/QUOTE] The shitty part is, that money gets you about one and a half F-35s.
the worse part is, ontop of the ticket prices, nasa usually has to pay for construction of the rocket too, which runs another $130 mill, its just russia jabbing a knife into NASA, and politicians arent helping it, its hard to explain how spending money saves us money in the long run BUT IT DOES!!!
Just ask the Kerbals to do it, I bet they'd be cheaper.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;40485411]The shitty part is, that money gets you about one and a half F-35s.[/QUOTE] why don't they just tape some rockets to an F-35
Granted space travel is expensive, but do we really have to pay the Russian millions of dollars. I mean, if the rocket is just sitting there fully fueled, why not just let the astronauts get on?
[QUOTE=cqbcat;40485500]Granted space travel is expensive, but do we really have to pay the Russian millions of dollars. I mean, if the rocket is just sitting there fully fueled, why not just let the astronauts get on?[/QUOTE] Because they need those millions of dollars to build them. That's why they're so expensive. [editline]30th April 2013[/editline] These ain't cold war relics that have been sitting in a giant rocket dealership lot since the space race, they gotta build a new one each time.
[QUOTE=Vasili;40484720]Why is this stuff always so expensive. Who is this money going to, why are the materials so expensive.[/QUOTE] the cost of the rocket is ENORMOUS. costs several hundred million [b]per launch[/b] for a non-reusable rocket. this is something that has to make a really really big explosion under it in order to propel it fast enough to break away from gravity and the atmosphere. each part needs to be built very carefully and with exact specifications, otherwise the astronauts die.
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