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posted by martyb on Wednesday May 06 2020, @05:05AM   Printer-friendly
NASA will pay a staggering $146 million for each SLS rocket engine:

NASA has previously given more than $1 billion to Aerojet to "restart" production of the space shuttle era engines and a contract for six new ones. So, according to the space agency, NASA has spent $3.5 billion for a total of 24 rocket engines. That comes to $146 million per engine.

The NASA news release says that Aerojet has "implemented a plan to reduce the cost of the engines by as much as 30 percent," noting the use of more advanced manufacturing techniques.

[...] NASA designed these brilliant engines in the 1970s for the space shuttle program, during which they each flew multiple launches. A total of 46 engines were built for the shuttle at an estimated cost of $40 million[*] per engine. But now these formerly reusable engines will be flown a single time on the SLS rocket and then dropped into the ocean.

There are four engines on a Space Launch System rocket. At this price, the engines for an SLS rocket, alone, will cost more than $580 million. This does not include the costs of fabricating the rocket's large core stage, towering solid-rocket boosters, an upper stage, or the costs of test, transportation, storage, and integration. With engine prices like these, it seems reasonable to assume that the cost of a single SLS launch will remain $2 billion into perpetuity.

[...] There are a lot of things one could buy in the aerospace industry for $146 million. One might, for example, buy at least six RD-180 engines from Russia. These engines have more than twice the thrust of a space shuttle main engine. Or, one might go to United Launch Alliance's Rocket Builder website and purchase two basic Atlas V rocket launches. You could buy three "flight-proven" Falcon 9 launches. One might even buy a Falcon Heavy launch, which has two-thirds the lift capacity of the Space Launch System at one-twentieth the price[...]

[...] SpaceX is building the Raptor rocket engine to power its Super Heavy rocket and Starship upper stage. The Raptor has slightly more power at sea level than the RS-25, and is designed for dozens of uses. According to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, it costs less than $1 million to build a Raptor engine. The company has already built a couple dozen of them on its own dime. So there's that.

[*] Not adjusted for inflation.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday May 07 2020, @05:33PM (1 child)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Thursday May 07 2020, @05:33PM (#991402) Journal

    TFA says that they will pay 1.79 Billion for another 18 engines, therefore at a single unit cost of $99,444,444.44.

    Yes, you can certainly take the $3.5 billion for 24 engines and come out at $146 million, but that is misleading when a considerable amount of that was startup development costs and that half the price is already a sunk cost.

    Is it wasteful? Sure seems like it. I'd bet one could make the math still indicate that at "only" $100 million.

    But make the accounting accurate first, which is more than just the math.

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 08 2020, @06:50PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 08 2020, @06:50PM (#991768) Journal

    TFA says that they will pay 1.79 Billion for another 18 engines

    Don't forget the inevitable cost overruns. Accounting math is quite futile with so much slack in the system in the first place.