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It's indeed kinda refreshing to see a company actually put such a high pricetag out there... and all the more frustrating that so many companies demand contact info for a "quote" when I don't need to do that to launch something into outer fucking space.

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Well you don't need the quote to get an idea of how feasible it would be for you to afford it. But I think you'd need a quote once you started fine-tuning your ask.

Of course nobody actually pays that.

>Of course nobody actually pays that

That's not the point.

That goes for anything sold B2B for more than a couple hundred dollars.

But still, I can immediately budget it at that price, and if the price comes down 20% in negotiations that pays for everything else that's behind schedule and over budget

Makes you wonder if this customer actually did though. If they were forced to dispose of the central booster due to the needs of the payload, that central booster must be costed in.

They paid more, something like $150M

I think "no one pays that" has more to do with "every mission is actually a negotiated contract" than "the price is inflated".

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/10/falcon-heavy-ussf-44...

Fair enough, I'd naïvely thought of it as a ceiling.

In my experience, most commercial offerings over USD$100,000 are negotiated, simply because there's enough money to do pay someone to negotiate.

Try that next time you stay in a hotel, or fly. Usually you pay more, often a lot more. But sometimes less.

Probably most SpaceX customers pay more. (Oh, you wanted it not tumbling?)

Gotta ask for the AAA discount.

Enter coupon code “CHIEFTWIT2022” during checkout.

For Falcon Heavy you are probably right (since there aren't many clients and they all have specific requests) but it is my understanding that the publically listed reusable F9 price is the one being paid by most customers.

Honestly, I think this would absolutely justify the Contact For Quote.

What's your payload? What size is it? Will it be a dedicated flight, or can we ride share with other customers?

So many questions just to do something silly like "launch something into outer fucking space". Also, nitpick, but is geosync orbit actually outer space?

Geosynchronous orbit is at 37,000km (well above ISS which iirc is at 400km), so by most definitions that is in space. Often that threshold is put as low as ~100km, when the atmosphere becomes too thin to support winged flight.

There's no definitional difference between "outer space" and just space. They're synonymous, and most commonly defined to begin at 100 km altitude. If there's any difference, it's that outer space refers to the physical region, as opposed to "space" that might refer to the mathematical and relativistic concept.

"Deep space" is another definition, which commonly means beyond lunar altitude.

Other regions of space typically use a specific descriptor - interplanetary, trans-Jovian, trans-Neptune, interstellar, extra-galactic.

> defined to begin at 100 km altitude

I guess this is probably on Earth, which makes me wonder how far up from Earth's moon do you have to go to be "in space"?

It's also defined for Mars (80 km) and Venus (250 km), with the same definition of where winged flight is possible based on atmospheric density and local gravity.

For an airless body, there's no real meaning to the definition, the surface is pretty much equivalent to space.

Winged flight is not possible in LEO but yet Starlink satellites are definitely affected by the earth's atmo

The 100 km comes from the "von Karmen line", the altitude at which the speed you'd need to be flying to generate enough lift to stay level would equal the orbital velocity.

For the moon, there is no such altitude, so space comes right down to the surface.

Fascinating, thanks! I'm not sure I would have made the connection between lift and orbital velocity.

> Honestly, I think this would absolutely justify the Contact For Quote.

Absolutely, which is exactly why it's so ridiculous that so many sales teams demand implied consent to receive their spam solely to get some kind of number for something far, far less.

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