Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The head of Russia's space agency on Saturday accused Elon Musk's SpaceX of predatory pricing for space launches, which is pushing Russia to cut its own prices. "Instead of honest competition on the market for space launches, they are lobbying for sanctions against us and use price dumping with impunity," Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin wrote on Twitter.
Rogozin, who is often outspoken on Twitter and previously engaged in online banter with Elon Musk, on Friday raised the issue during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
He said the Roscosmos space agency "is working to lower prices by more than 30 percent on launch services to increase our share on the international markets." "This is our answer to dumping by American companies financed by the US budget," he said. The market price of a SpaceX launch is $60 million, but NASA pays up to four times that amount, he said.
Musk responded to the criticism Saturday by saying on Twitter: "SpaceX rockets are 80% reusable, theirs are 0%. This is the actual problem."
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday April 13 2020, @06:45PM (3 children)
Was Russia only willing to participate in this lunar space station because they thought it would be their rockets being used? Sounds like "illegal" government funding to keep Roscosmos alive.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday April 13 2020, @07:28PM
This part is a Rogozin fever dream. It would not materialize.
The Lunar Gateway has been in flux anyway, although it is still on the agenda and Europe, Japan, and Canada are officially on board.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday April 13 2020, @07:52PM
Not to mention 25 years of "illegal" government funding via the ISS to said Russian space program.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2020, @09:25PM
One of the goals of the ISS was for the US to keep the Russian space industry subsidized so that all their rocket engineers wouldn't go make ballistic missiles, so they're kind of hoping for a repeat here.