How SpaceX Saves NASA $100 Million Per Flight

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Motley Fool By Rich Smith - Mar 20, 2022

Key Points

•  Price of a space ticket from Russia's Roscosmos: $97 million.

•  Price of a space ticket from Boeing: $100 million.

•  Having SpaceX as an alternative to bring down costs from all parties: Priceless.

SpaceX Crew Dragon flights offer ticket prices unmatched by any alternative.

Ticket prices and inflation add up

The last time NASA bought rocket tickets for its astronauts from Roscosmos in 2018, the Russian space agency charged $86 million per seat. It's hard to say how much Roscosmos would charge for those seats today (present-day geopolitical difficulties might make that difficult) but adjusted simply for inflation, $86 million in 2018 works out to about $97 million per ticket in 2022 dollars. And this implies that, in hiring SpaceX to carry its astronauts for only $75 million a pop, NASA is saving taxpayers about $22 million per ticket -- or $88 million per flight. 

Similarly, SpaceX's per-ticket cost appears to offer significant savings relative to the price of flying astronauts on Boeing's Starliner. That's assuming, of course, Starliner is eventually certified safe to carry astronauts. According to a 2019 report by NASA's Office of Inspector General, Boeing flights were expected to cost about $90 million a ticket -- which was already more than Roscosmos was charging. 

Adjusted for inflation, Boeing's price works out to about $100 million per ticket in today's dollars -- also more than the implied price of a Roscosmos ticket. So compared to what Boeing will charge, SpaceX astronaut tickets represent taxpayer savings closer to $100 million per spaceflight.

I should point out that these savings are conservative. Using different data points, SpaceNews.com calculates that the per-seat ticket price offered by SpaceX is actually closer to $65 million than $75 million. By that metric, SpaceX's Commercial Crew flights represent savings of $128 million over Roscosmos and $140 million over Boeing.
 
What it means to investors

Investors can draw two conclusions from all of the above: First and foremost, NASA's 2014 decision to switch to hiring commercial aerospace contractors to ferry its astronauts to ISS and back was the right one. It's saving taxpayers a lot of money.

More: https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/03/20/how-spacex-saves-nasa-100-million-per-flight/