![]() 06/10/2020 at 17:38 • Filed to: Spacelopnik | ![]() | ![]() |
I understand, comrades. He tends to piss me off too.
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![]() 06/10/2020 at 17:51 |
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I have no doubt that Soyuz is cheaper - its a proven design that they’ve been building for 50 years, lot of opportunity to develop economies of scale and smooth out the supply chain for maximum efficiency, plus Russia has a lower cost of doing business to begin with. He’s just mad that he’s going to lose those $90 million a seat transport contracts, the most accurate estimates I’ve seen suggest that it costs Roscosmos as little as $20 million a seat to launch, so that’s a pretty healthy profit margin. And NASA/SpaceX are now in a position to also sell seats to other ISS participants, so Russia has basically lost their pricing power for space access.
![]() 06/10/2020 at 18:02 |
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Yup seems like the Russians knew they could gouge and so they did. Maybe they had no faith in SpaceX but surely had to
expect this day was coming.
![]() 06/10/2020 at 18:10 |
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While I have every confidence that what you said is correct, it's also true that Musk is really really annoying.
![]() 06/10/2020 at 18:16 |
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Just read the article. Comparing the Soyuz to a Kalashnikov rifle is probably very accurate. Come up with a design that is robust and cheap to produce and then produce it till the cows com
e home..
![]() 06/10/2020 at 18:26 |
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They surely did, which is probably part of why they were charging what they did - make money while you can - it started at $63 million a seat in 2011. But, they were a monopoly, to be fair, and putting someone in space isn’t something any old country can do.
![]() 06/10/2020 at 18:38 |
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That’s about Russia’s MO, if its not broken, don’t fix it. VVER reactors since 1957, UAZ 452 since 1965, UAZ 469 since 1971, Lada Niva since 1977.
![]() 06/10/2020 at 19:01 |
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U ntil somebody comes along and steals a bunch of your market and then you are screwed. Thus said bitterness. I’m kind of surprised they haven’t tried to corner the titanium market - I would think that would give them a bit more bargaining leverage since the oil market is still tanking, (and sunflower seeds were never really going to be an earth shattering opportunity.)
![]() 06/10/2020 at 19:37 |
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I think what he’s saying is that Boeing is more hurt by SpaceX than Roscosmos.
![]() 06/10/2020 at 19:46 |
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I thought Boeing’s biggest problem was Boeing.
![]() 06/10/2020 at 19:54 |
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It is, but it isn’t their only problem.
![]() 06/10/2020 at 22:47 |
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He probably is right there, Roscosmos has plenty of their own cosmonauts to launch, and there are a number of other countries who will probably prefer to stick with them than go with SpaceX/NASA. But, Boeing has just been beaten to the punch, they would have to demonstrate serious advantages over SpaceX to keep a decent market share - they’ve got two NASA flights contracted already through 2021, but beyond that I guess, is still an open question.