🚀 go-pugleaf

-From: David.Anderman@ofa123.fidonet.org
-Subject: Re: Comparative $/lb to LEO (Was: Stupid Shuttle Cost Arguments)
-Date: 29 Dec 92 16:31:24 GMT

-The Space Shuttle is the most expensive launch vehicle (per pound in orbit)
-that exists today. I believe this, but cannot prove it.
-...
-However, I freely that I hold this opinion largely on the basis of a gut
-feeling, rather than the available numbers.

Please inform your gut :-) that such comparisons are not very useful unless
accompanied by lots of substantiating math. The markets for Shuttle and
Pegasus are different anyway. The "cost per pound" of launching a KH-12
by Pegasus would be pretty impressive. :-) On the other hand, direct
Shuttle launch to polar orbit would be pretty expensive, since the 
Vandenberg facility is mothballed.

Dennis has pointed out (but nobody else seems to believe) that there are
many ways of figuring cost, based on your application - marginal cost of
a single flight, operational costs, operational plus development for
future launches (which is what's usually used for the Shuttle), and
operational plus amortization of all development costs. There's not a
single number you can point to and say "that number is the cost - use it
for all accounting".

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov