Russia Just Made Elon Musk the Luckiest Man in Space

[Elderberry]

Motley Fool By Rich Smith - Mar 27, 2022

Russia's prices were getting low enough to compete with SpaceX -- until Roscosmos shot itself in the foot.

How much does it cost to launch a Russian rocket? "Roscosmos, isn't known for being transparent about its costs," deadpanned German news agency DW in a 2018 article on the Russian space agency's pricing of rocket launches. Nevertheless, a landmark deal among satellite operator OneWeb, Airbus ( EADSY 0.03% ) subsidiary Arianespace, and rocket provider Roscosmos shed some light on the Russian space agency's pricing back in 2015.

In a contract Roscosmos called "the largest in the history of the provision of launch services," OneWeb hired Roscosmos to supply 21 Soyuz rockets to put up to 700 communications satellites in orbit for $1 billion. (That's about $47.6 million per Soyuz rocket). The companies further discussed launching even more satellites on three to 11 Roscosmos Proton rockets for between $300 million and $800 million (that's anywhere from $72.7 million to $100 million per rocket).

Add it up. In total, Roscosmos stood in line to do 32 launches' worth of work for OneWeb -- that's more rockets than SpaceX launched in all of 2021. This deal with OneWeb promised to make Roscosmos one of the most important launch providers in the world. More than that, at the prices being discussed, Roscosmos would become, arguably, the only rocket-launch provider offering prices low enough to compete with SpaceX. That would have been quite a victory for Roscosmos, a company whose fear of SpaceX and its low prices verges on paranoia.

Instead, Roscosmos has shut itself out of the international launch market -- and handed a bonanza to SpaceX.

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." -- Warren Buffet

The Russian war on Ukraine that began last month created a humanitarian tragedy and damaged Russia's reputation internationally. It's also possibly doomed the Russian space program.

More: https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/03/27/russia-made-elon-musk-the-luckiest-man-in-space/

[Smokin Joe]

While the Donbas region is known for coal and steel mills, considerable ICBM and aerospace manufacturing takes place there as well. Invading it and trying to seize it from Ukraine just might have messed up the aerospace industry in Russia.