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> The whole Falcon 9 program didn't even cost 400 million $ to develop initially.

The Falcon 9 first flew in 2010. US govt CPI measure over the period 2008 (picking a development start time at random) to 2024 is ~45 percent. I've not idea if this explains it all, but it certainly explains a chunk of it.

>$843 seems like way to much money for this job.

The NASA Administrator quoted a $1.5 billion figure, so $843 million is a bargain.

Who else is there at the moment? Boeing who people don't even trust in atmo, and the russians who we're in a cold war with?

If SpaceX got it for $843m, doesn't that imply it would've cost everyone else a lot more?

$843M is the contract cost, basically to just do the R&D. The vehicle itself will be sold separately.