The Examiner has a Q&A with SpaceX founder Elon Musk in which he talks about how much cheaper it will be once his company’s Falcon 9 rocket begins launching Dragon spacecraft into orbit:
SA: A manned flight to the ISS aboard a Soyuz currently costs about 50 million dollars. Where do you see this price in a few years when the Falcon 9 comes online and what are the benefits to US taxpayers?
EM: In contrast to the existing manned systems, a seat onboard the Dragon Spacecraft launched by the Falcon 9 rocket and would cost less than $20M per seat and it is 100% manufactured and launched in the United States. We are estimating that it would create well in excess of a 1000 high quality jobs at Cape Canaveral and an equivalent number in California and Texas, where we do our manufacturing and testing. Moreover, the total cost would only be $1.5B, so taxpayers would save $2B.
The “made in the USA” comment is probably not just as dig at the Russians. SpaceX’s other competitor is Orbital Sciences Corporation, which like SpaceX is developing a new rocket and spacecraft with funding under NASA’s COTS program. One of the engines for Orbital Sciences’ Taurus II rocket is being built in the Ukraine.
Read the full interview.