RE: starship-design: Space Money

[David Levine <david@actionworld.com>]

> ----------
> From: 	KellySt@aol.com[SMTP:KellySt@aol.com]
> 
> Think about it.  A space shuttle costs about a billion dollars a bird
> to buy,
> and about the same per flight to operate.  The yearly shuttle flight
> expences
> 
NASA's budget for the shuttle program averages around 3 billion a year
for both operations and safety and performance upgrades.  Assuming six
flights a year, this averages to half a billion a flight.  Now, this is
still an awful lot of money - but's it's not a billion.  Actually, in
1996 there were eight flights, making the cost-per-flight $375,000,000.

Although it usually never carries this much, the shuttle can carry up to
around 45,000 lbs (i.e. STS-70, which launched the last TDRS).  If we
maxed out each shuttle flight, we'd get around $8,333 per pound.  That's
a lot of money.  The average flight carries around half that weight,
doubling the cost.

Ref.: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codeb/budget/shuttle4.html
(LOTS of cool information)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
David Levine                                david@actionworld.com
Director of Development               http://www.actionworld.com/
ActionWorld, Inc.                                  (212) 387-8200
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."