How SpaceX Saves NASA $100 Million Per Flight

The business of space changed eight years ago.

The Crew Dragon and Starliner are two new human-rated spaceships that were built by NASA. Each company would perform as many as six crewed missions to the International Space Station after proving their ship is safe to fly.

Boeing has yet to complete its test flights and has not performed a crewed mission. Is it possible that it is possible that it is possible that it is possible that it is possible that it is possible that it is possible that it is possible that it is possible that it is possible that it is possible that it is possible that it is possible that it is possible that it The contract was a resounding success.

After the 2020 demo-2 mission, which marked America's return to crewed spaceflight, the next four missions were completed by the company. NASA wants to keep the International Space Station full of astronauts in the future, even though Crew-4 is slated to blast off on April 15.

The image is from the same source.

Hello, Houston? We need more spaceships

NASA awarded three new crewed spaceflight contracts to the company last month, after modifying its original CCtCap contract.

NASA will call these flights Crew-7, Crew-8, and Crew-9. NASA is increasing the value of the original CCtCap award by $900 million to $3.5 billion. The per-seat cost is $75 million and the per-mission cost is $300 million.

Is that a lot or a little?

Ticket prices and inflation add up

The Russian space agency charged NASA $86 million per seat for the last time they bought rocket tickets for their astronauts. It is difficult to say how much the seats would cost today, but adjusted for inflation, it would be about 97 million dollars per ticket. NASA is saving taxpayers about $22 million per ticket, or $88 million per flight, as a result of hiring SpaceX to carry its astronauts for only $75 million a pop.

The cost of flying astronauts on Boeing's Starliner appears to be more expensive than the cost of flying astronauts on SpaceX. Starliner is eventually certified safe to carry astronauts. Boeing flights were expected to cost about $90 million a ticket, which was more than the cost of the flights by the Russian government.

The implied price of a Roscosmos ticket is more than the adjusted price of a Boeing ticket. The taxpayer savings are closer to $100 million per spaceflight, compared to what Boeing will charge.

These savings are conservative. The per-seat ticket price is closer to $65 million than it is to $75 million, according to SpaceNews.com. The savings from the Commercial Crew flights are more than the ones from Boeing.

What it means to investors

First and foremost, the decision by NASA to hire commercial contractors to ferry its astronauts to and from the International Space Station was the right one. It is saving taxpayers a lot of money.

The absence of Boeing from the space race doesn't seem to detract from NASA's cost savings The potential for Boeing to get its Starliner off the ground and proven capable of human spaceflight is enough to keep the prices of the rockets in check.

Boeing will make its next attempt at a Starliner test flight in May. If successful, NASA will have two alternative space systems to choose from, and they will play off against each other for cost savings. It is important for NASA that Boeing gets this right because of the fact that Roscosmos is no longer available. This is important for Boeing because the defense, space, and security division is its second-largest profit generator, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

With that accomplished, Boeing can hopefully work its prices down to the point where it can compete with SpaceX for some of that sweet NASA commercial-crew cash.

Rich Smith doesn't have a position in any of the stocks. The stocks mentioned have no position in The Motley Fool. There is a disclosure policy for The Motley Fool.