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Russia Doubles Price For Launching US Astronauts
Third Position writes "NASA on Tuesday signed a contract to pay $55.8 million per astronaut for six Americans to fly into space on Russian Soyuz capsules in 2013 and 2014. NASA needs to get rides on Russian rockets to the International Space Station because it plans to retire the space shuttle fleet later this year. NASA now pays half as much, about $26.3 million per astronaut, when it uses Russian ships."
Prices go up when competition declines. Shock and horror expressed by those ignorant of basic economics. Film at 11.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090513/155009780.html
Yawn.
How we know is more important than what we know.
About $75 Million ($450 Million per launch)
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Can't blame this one on Obama. The shuttle was to be retired with no replacement before Obama took office. He did gut the future of the space program though.
History is so yesterday!
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/shuttle_faq.html
Funny how it was cheaper to fly as a paid passenger than astronaut.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
A figured I'd better google some numbers. Wikipedia says $60 million or $1.3 billion per launch, depending on how you calculate it. Nasa says $450 million per launch. NASA's figure is more expensive than Soyuz for 6 astronauts. Wikipedia's low end figure is obviously a lot cheaper (and kind of hard to believe).
It is variable. The shuttle launches 7 not 3 people however the shuttle can also carry literally tons of cargo too something that requires multiple launches with russias design. It is why NASA built the iss. Launching the components is cheaper and more can bedone in any given section with the shuttle.
So for transporting just new people Soyuz isthe way to go. You needto expand the station the shuttle isbetter
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
the rocket is just going straight up, what's so hard?
No, it's not.
Are you telling me that if I had the best part of $60 million I couldn't design, build and fly my own rocket in to space?
Elon Musk has spent a good part of a billion so far, has some of the brightest minds in the world working for him, and that's the cheapest *anyone* has developed a launcher for so far.
Just strap a sealed chamber onto a grain silo of fuel, surely?
Good luck with that.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Don't forget to add in 25t of cargo launched alongside the crew (so no rendezvous needed for a crew+cargo mission). Furthermore, the shuttle payload bay is BIG and can accommodate payloads too large for any other currently flying vehicle.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
And this is why US will eventually fall, like every other empire in the human history. Only thing that is needed for it is when China and Taiwan decide to increase their manufacturing prices. It's a bad economy as it is and everyone in the US is getting high pays only because of international loans. You can't live on loans forever - eventually someone will start gathering them back. Since this is politics as well, the only thing needed is to provide manufacturing, product building and technology research cheaper than the US. Oh wait, that's what has been happening for years in India and China and US companies are still going for it.
You don't need to have a war to win, just collapse the other country.
Problem 1 - the burning fuel is hotter than the melting point of the engines.
Problem 2 - the engines have to run at sea level and in a vacuum.
Problem 3 - flying through atmosphere at 2000 MPH
Problem 4 - getting down
Get back to me after you think you have those solved cheaply and safely.
We lead the space race, put men on the moon, landers on Mars, explored the furthest reaches of our system, made huge technological breakthroughs via the space race and now we're reduced to begging for rides from the commies?
What the hell is going on with our country?!
Yep. America lead the space race.
1st earth creature in space: Russian Dog.
1st person in space: Yuri Gagarin (Russian).
1st person to orbit earth: Yuri Gagarin (Russian, same mission).
1st woman in space: Valentina Tereshkova (Russian)
1st space walk: Alexei Leonov (Russian)
1st man on the moon: Neil Armstrong (American)
After 5 space firsts by the Russians, America finally beat them to something: the moon.
1st space station: Salyut 1 (Russian)
That is the point everyone forgets. China has only one advantage over the USA. Cheap labor. China doesn't have any other resources that the usa also has.
You're wrong.
China has a massive industrial base.
Much of heavy industry, which was the backbone of the USA's industrial revoltion, picked up and moved to China (and Mexico).
The real bitch is that nobody in the USA is willing to rebuild the industrial base because it's (A) farking expensive and (B) will only serve to depress market prices (usually below what's considered an acceptable rate of return).
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!