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Russia Space Chief Spars with Elon Musk Over Launch Pricing

posted by Fnord666 on Monday April 13 2020, @04:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the cheaper-by-the-dozen dept.

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."

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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday April 13 2020, @07:28PM (4 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 13 2020, @07:28PM (#982170) Journal

    And, of course, it's a bit hypocritical for a government that calls itself communist to complain about government subsidy. (I'm not sure Russia still calls itself communist though. That feeling may just a a hangover from back in the day.)

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by legont on Monday April 13 2020, @10:49PM (3 children)

    by legont (4179) on Monday April 13 2020, @10:49PM (#982277)

    Russia today is way more capitalist than the US.

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    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 14 2020, @04:22AM (2 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 14 2020, @04:22AM (#982412) Journal

      Russia today is way more capitalist than the US.

      Like state-owned Roscosmos versus purely private, SpaceX?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @09:01AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @09:01AM (#982475)

        Like state-owned Roscosmos versus purely private, SpaceX?

        Are you serious? Comparing Roscosmos to SpaceX is like comparing NASA to SpaceX. And as far as I know, NASA is not exactly private and it probably should not be private.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 14 2020, @12:08PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 14 2020, @12:08PM (#982536) Journal
          Of course, I'm serious. The comparison is valid because Roscosmos is a competitor to SpaceX in a way that NASA is not. They manage directly the organizations that manufacture the Soyuz [wikipedia.org] and Angara [wikipedia.org] rocket families.

          And as far as I know, NASA is not exactly private and it probably should not be private.

          But neither should it be competing with private business for the commercial launch market. And frankly, the same goes for Roscosmos. They should have spun off their control a couple decades ago.