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SpaceX plan to cut costs on launching new projects

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SpaceX, the rocket company founded and inspired by tech czar Elon Musk, is poised to make good on its promise to slash the cost of launching future projects into space.

In December 2015, SpaceX did something no other commercial aerospace company had done before i.e. launching a satellite into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, then safely landing the lower half – also called the first-stage booster – on a launchpad.

Musk was delighted about the feat and for good reasons. Orbital rockets cost tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars to build, but they were never recycled.Mostly they were just splashed into the ocean and sunk to the bottom.

While SpaceX has filled a large hangar with used rocket boosters over the past year, it is yet to show how the boosters can be re-launched.

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But that wait seems about to end. As soon as March 29 because SpaceX ,for the first time plans to launch a used booster. And the launch will ferry a new communications satellite into orbit.

spacex falcon 9 rocket used boosters first stages hangar cape canaveral florida flickr 27042449393_75d3cd0183_k

A satellite company called SES has earlier signed a contract for this launch in August 2016. However, SpaceX delayed that mission due to a launchpad explosion on September 1, 2016.

Thankfully, no one was hurt during the incident, which Musk said was “the most difficult and complex failure we have ever had”. It took the company several months to figure out what happened and allegedly fix the issue.

If the next mission, called SES-10, goes according to plans, it could mark the beginning of an era where SpaceX can reliably offer the lowest cost per pound to get stuff to and from low-Earth orbit and beyond.

Each Falcon 9 rocket launch costs a customer about $62 million. SpaceX expenditure is near $37 million to build, fuel, and launch each rocket, for roughly a 40% margin. In 2016, Gwynne Shotwell, the president, and COO of SpaceX said customers who opt to launch on a used booster could get 30% off their launch bill.

spacex falcon heavy lift rocket illustration

That means SpaceX customers save about $18.6 million per launch (and SpaceX likely more) when a recycled Falcon 9 rocket booster is used instead of a new one.

Those savings could further compound as SpaceX prepares to debut its gigantic Falcon Heavy rocket system, which will use three boosters – all of which can self-land, be fueled up, and launch again.

Each launch of a Falcon Heavy is projected to cost about $90 million, and could ostensibly send a crewed mission to the moon.

 

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