The Falcon family of SpaceX rockets continues to dominate the U.S. launch market, having recently won their third consecutive NASA launch contract this year.
On September 25, NASA announced that it had contracted SpaceX to launch its interstellar mapping and ration acceleration probe (IMAP) mission and several ridershare payloads. For 10 9,109.4 million, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida (NET) at the L1 luggage point on Earth before October 2024.
IMAP is the third consecutive launch agreement given by NASA to SpaceX. In early February 2020, the space agency awarded SpaceX a .4 80.4 million contract to launch the PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Sea Ecosystem) mission on Falcon 9 in December 2022. In late February, the space agency re-selected SpaceX, signing for 7 117. Agreement to launch Syche spacecraft on Falcon heavy rocket in July 2022.
Together, in the last seven months, NASA has awarded three launch contracts to SpaceX – and to SpaceX alone – for a total of 7 307 million. Rival United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) final NASA launch deal came in December 2019, when the space agency paid the company 16 5,165.7 million to launch the GOES-T climate satellite on the Atlas V541 rocket in December 2021. On average, each SpaceX deal saves NASA at least $ 50 million on launch costs alone.
SpaceX Before breaking the ULA’s monopoly on launch services, the company actually charged NASA $ 230 million to launch similar Goz-R and Goz-S satellites on the Atlas V1 541 rocket, meaning that reproduction could compete and Can reduce by up to 40%. ULA’s own prices.
Surprisingly, however, the cost of NASA’s IMAP Falcon 9 launch agreement is much higher than most other NASA Falcon 9 missions, including Pace. At 10 9,109.4 million, IMAP’s Falcon 9 contract alone will cost just 6. 6.6 million – 5.6% less than Saiche’s Falcon Heavy launch contract
At the moment, nothing is public about IMAP or its લર 4 ઇડ Rideshare passenger group. NASA’s own projection calculator suggests that the Falcon 9, with a drone ship booster recovery, can launch a range of up to 3400 kg (7500 lb) at a range of 1 point, a form of gravity between Earth and the Sun. While it is possible that SpaceX is just defensive and will put a little less money where its mouth is as low as the cost of space access, IMAP’s contract price strongly suggests that it would be worth spending for Mission Falcon 9.
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