Re: launcher costs by type of economy

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Article #7152

#7152

From: Gary Coffman
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1993 21:41

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In article <C0CJu8.6sr@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>
>I agree that, other things being equal (an important precondition!), free
>societies are more efficient than command economies.  Nobody has yet tried
>building a space program on free enterprise.

That's because nobody can show a high enough return on investment to
interest private capital markets. Meanwhile, banks fall all over themselves
trying to loan you $1 million to buy a MacDonalds franchise. Space programs
haven't turned a decent profit for anyone but government contractors. Even
the comsat industry wouldn't exist if it had to pay the development costs
to get the first GEO bird in place and operational. NASA and DOD paid those
development bills.

Gary
-- 
Gary Coffman KE4ZV          |    You make it,     | gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary
Destructive Testing Systems |    we break it.     | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary
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<h0l2prg@rpi.edu> <1992Dec16.195416.8422@iti.org> <1992Dec17.163212.20944@eng.umd.edu> <1992Dec22.161111.29439@iti.org> <1992Dec25.002926.4218@ke4zv.uucp> <ewright.725647824@convex.convex.com> <1993Jan4.152349.10512@ke4zv.uucp> <C0CJu8.6sr@zoo.toronto.edu>

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Newsgroups: sci.space
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!gatech!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary
From: gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman)
Subject: Re: launcher costs by type of economy
Message-ID: <1993Jan5.214143.21291@ke4zv.uucp>
Reply-To: gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman)
Organization: Destructive Testing Systems
References: <h0l2prg@rpi.edu> <1992Dec16.195416.8422@iti.org> <1992Dec17.163212.20944@eng.umd.edu> <1992Dec22.161111.29439@iti.org> <1992Dec25.002926.4218@ke4zv.uucp> <ewright.725647824@convex.convex.com> <1993Jan4.152349.10512@ke4zv.uucp> <C0CJu8.6sr@zoo.toronto.edu>
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 21:41:43 GMT
Lines: 20

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