SpaceX Finds a Customer For Its First Reused Rocket (arstechnica.com)

What do you do after you successfully land a rocket on a floating barge in the Atlantic? You reuse it. SpaceX has been on the hunt for someone to reuse some of its first-stage Falcon boosters, and now SpaceX has finally found a customer. Ars Technica reports: "The Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES said Tuesday that it intends to launch a geostationary satellite, SES 10, on a reusable rocket in the fourth quarter of this year. SpaceX has not yet specified how much it will charge for launch services on one of its flown boosters, but industry officials anticipate about a 30 percent discount on SpaceX's regular price of $62 million for a Falcon 9 launch. The company has not shared how much it is spending to refurbish and reuse a Falcon 9 stage, nor has it offered much public information about the extent to which the vehicle's engines have had to be tested and prepared for a second flight." "Having been the first commercial satellite operator to launch with SpaceX back in 2013, we are excited to once again be the first customer on SpaceX's first ever mission using a flight-proven rocket," said Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer at SES. "We believe reusable rockets will open up a new era of spaceflight and make access to space more efficient in terms of cost and manifest management."

Comments

Re:Still higher than a Soyuz launch

[Edis Krad]

The Soyuz (Actually, Progress. Soyuz is for people) has much smaller capacity. A payload of 2,400 kg and AFAIK, doesn't go past LEO.

Falcon 9 has a payload of 22,800 kg to LEO, and 8,300 kg to geostationary orbit. Three times more expensive you say? Sure, it can also carry 9 times more stuff and father away.

Shame on you, and whoever modded you up

[cbhacking]

You are comparing apples to oranges. Progress is a spacecraft, not a rocket. Falcon 9 is a rocket, not a spacecraft. They cannot be directly compared, because they aren't even the same class of thing! SpaceX's equivalent of Progress is the Dragon capsule.

The Soyuz ROCKET , specifically the newest version (called Soyuz-2, has a payload of 8200 kg to LEO and 3250 kg to GTO. It's still not nearly so powerful as Falcon 9, even the reusable configuration (I believe the numbers you quoted omit the F9's grid fins, landing legs, and reserved fuel for recovery), but it's far more than one ninth as powerful.

Sigh...

Cheaper than Soyuz, and lifts much more

[hkultala]

Soyuz rocket launch cost is 48-61 millions depending on configuration (LEO launches cheaper due no upper stage)
Soyuz capasity to is 8.2 tonnes to LEO and 3.25 tonnes to GTO.

Falcon 9 expendable capasity is 22.8 tonnes to LEO and 8.3 tonnes to GTO,
and Falcon 9(stage 1 recoverable) capasity is over 13 tonnes to LEO(propably much more) and 5.5 tonnes to GTO.

So, falcon 9 on fully expendable mode lifts over 2.5x more than soyuz, and falcon 9 on stage 1 recoverable mode lift over 1.5 x more than soyuz.

This means that:
for LEO launches, reused reusable(assuming the 30% discount) falcon 9 is 10% cheaper than Soyuz, while lifting over 1.5 times more.
for GTO launches, reused reusable(assuming the 30% discount) falcon 9 is 29% cheaper than Soyuz, while lifting about 1.7 times more.