Russia’s Proton rocket successfully put a commercial communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit on Wednesday
The competition heats up: Russia’s Proton rocket successfully put a commercial communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit on Wednesday.
This is the third successful Proton launch this year and the third since a December launch failure. It appears the Russians have ironed out the kinks in the Briz-M upper stage, and are ready to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. In fact, at the moment they are the only ones who can compete with the Falcon 9, at least when it comes to price.
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The competition heats up: Russia’s Proton rocket successfully put a commercial communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit on Wednesday.
This is the third successful Proton launch this year and the third since a December launch failure. It appears the Russians have ironed out the kinks in the Briz-M upper stage, and are ready to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. In fact, at the moment they are the only ones who can compete with the Falcon 9, at least when it comes to price.
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
Not so sure about that. Your link goes to an article in which the price of a Proton launch – pre-discount – was said to be nearly the same as an Ariane 5. The Ariane 5’s cost is variously reported to be $150 – $220 million. Just to make matters more confusing, the Wikipedia with the $220 million figure for Ariane 5 puts the Proton M at $85 million. That’s way less, but still a lot higher than the Falcon 9’s $56 million. Maybe the Russians can take a $29 million haircut to match Elon, but I doubt it. And when he gets reusable first stages sorted out there is for sure going to be blood running in the gutters at Roskosmos and Arianespace.
Not so sure about that. Your link goes to an article in which the price of a Proton launch – pre-discount – was said to be nearly the same as an Ariane 5. The Ariane 5′s cost is variously reported to be $150 – $220 million. Just to make matters more confusing, the Wikipedia source with the $220 million figure for Ariane 5 puts the Proton M at $85 million. That’s way less, but still a lot higher than the Falcon 9′s $56 million. Maybe the Russians can take a $29 million haircut to match Elon, but I doubt it. And when he gets reusable first stages sorted out there is for sure going to be blood running in the gutters at Roskosmos and Arianespace.
Hope this is clearer. God, I really hate blog platforms with neither preview nor ex post facto edit capability.
I’m not so sure myself. Sometime in the past three months I had linked to an article that showed Proton to be very close to Falcon 9 in price, but couldn’t find the link when I posted this one today.
And as you say, even if the price at that link was right, Proton will still have trouble competing if SpaceX can get its first stages reusable.
While it seems slow to us eagerly watching it, SpaceX is moving so fast the rest of the industry is not keeping up. These are exciting times. I hope SpaceX continues to perform and some real competition emerges.