Satellite Owner Says SpaceX Owes $50 Million Or Free Flight (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Israel's Space Communication Ltd said on Sunday it could seek $50 million or a free flight from Elon Musk's SpaceX after a Spacecom communications satellite was destroyed last week by an explosion at SpaceX's Florida launch site. Officials of the Israeli company said in a conference call with reporters Sunday that Spacecom also could collect $205 million from Israel Aerospace Industries, which built the AMOS-6 satellite. Spacecom has been hit hard in the aftermath of the Thursday explosion that destroyed the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its payload. The Israeli company said the loss of the satellite would have a significant impact, with its equity expected to decline by $30 million to $123 million. Spacecom shares dropped 9 percent on Thursday, with the explosion occurring late in the last trading day of the week. Trading in the shares was suspended on Sunday morning, and the stock plummeted another 34 percent when trading resumed. In a conference call with reporters, Spacecom's general counsel Gil Lotan said it was too early to say if the company's planned merger with Beijing Xinwei Technology Group would proceed. Xinwei last month agreed to buy Spacecom for $285 million, saying the deal was contingent on the successful launch and operation of Spacecom's AMOS-6 satellite. The $200 million AMOS-6 satellite that perished in the explosion belonged to Facebook and was going to be used to beam internet to developing parts of the world.

Comments

Spacecraft did not belong to Facebook

[Strider-]

What's with these summaries? Facebook had nothing to do with the spacecraft, other than the fact that they had an agreement in place to lease a significant portion of the Ka-Band transponders on the satellite.

Insurance is separate

[XXongo]

The point is: SpaceX is cheaper than other space transport systems because it doen't sell you an insurance. When we compare SpaceX launch cost with (e.g.) ESA launch cost, we compare launch cost against launch and insurance cost.

Launch insurance is bookkept separately from launch cost. And you buy it from insurance companies. It typically costs five or six percent of the launch cost, depending on launch vehicle. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/01...

Re:Spaceflight is risky

[bobbied]

You ALWAYS pay more than the average risk is worth when you buy insurance.... Individuals who suffer an insured loss *sometimes* recover more than they have paid in premiums, but this is the exception.

In my 35 years as an insured motorist I have had 3 claims, two accidents and one hail claim. I estimate the TOTAL paid for these claims to be under $25K. In 35 years I've paid more than $1,000/year in premiums and I estimate that I've paid about 4 times the amount of the paid claims.

I'm keeping the auto insurance company in business.... They know that.... They make SURE you pay generally more than you cost them. You may be up on the house from time to time, but like the casino and gambling, the insurance company (the house) ALWAYS wins.