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SpaceX has signed a contract with a Japanese commercial satellite company.

The competition heats up: SpaceX has signed a contract with a Japanese commercial satellite company.

The story was first reported on Friday, but I was busy this weekend and forgot to post it. Key quote:

The launch contract award for JCSAT 14, a communications satellite owned by Tokyo-based SKY Perfect JSAT Corp., adds another mission to SpaceX’s backlog, which stands at nearly 50 missions worth nearly $5 billion, according to a company press kit.

As SpaceX rolls these missions out and the money rolls in, it will insure the likelihood that they will build the Falcon Heavy as promised. And when they do, they will have created a heavy lift rocket and done it for pennies, compared to the costs spent on numerous government projects attempting to do the same.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

3 comments

  • Edward

    “nearly 50 missions worth nearly $5 billion”

    That is a bit disappointing, as I thought the cost would be more like $70 million, not $100 million per flight.

  • I think these numbers also include the NASA cargo flights, which at 12 flights for $1.6 billion averages $133 million and thus raises the average. Without those NASA flights the number is 38 flights for $3.4 billion, or about $89 million per flight.

    Still higher than $70 million but far less than other rocket companies.

  • “. . . they will have created a heavy lift rocket and done it for pennies . . ”

    Falcon Heavy is one of the more exciting launchers to come down the pike. If it performs anywhere close to advertised, it will be a true game changer. Government has done its bit for space launch and manned space: it provided the research and procedures necessary for safe, reliable space flight. Now it’s time for government to relegate itself to customer and provider of basic research, and let private space do the rest.

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