Posted on 05/22/2023 5:06:55 AM PDT by Salman
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSE) last week put out a call for low-cost cargo haulage services to its space station.
The announcement said Beijing wants cheap transportation to Tiangong to foster commercial space activity and enhance the space station's activities.
The deadline for applications is July 15, so there's not much time left to sketch out the required spacecraft, launch vehicles and launch support.
According to an accompanying technical guide, Beijing has set the price it's willing to pay at $17.1 million per metric ton of cargo.
That's far less than the commercial services used by NASA to service the International Space Station: SpaceX's resupply missions between 2012 and 2017, for example, carried an average 2,200kg at $152 million per launch – about $69 million per metric ton. SpaceX also offers launches at $5,500 per kg ($5.5 million per ton), for payloads on shared missions.
China wants private providers to dock with Tiangong and stay in place for at least three months. CMSE is unfussed about what happens to the vehicle after it delivers to Tiangong.
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.com ...
China is subsidizing launches, until they drive the competition out of business and get a near monopoly on launches and space tourism.
They aren’t competing on merit.
And if we think NASA is a bureaucracy, China makes NASA look like a streamlined operation.
And maybe we can get'm to manufacture our next-generation fighter aircraft, known as F/A-XX.. Look at the money we could save.!
What could go wrong.??
I sure hope you are not viewing any “business endeavor” from Communist China as a real “business” operation.
Anything emanating from Communist China is wholly a government operation, with the sole focus of destroying the competition, and that involves everything from industrial espionage, breaking bank laws, buying politicans, violating or ignoring intellectual property laws, and everything else that goes along with that.
They like to cloak it in a guise of “new capitalism” but it is nothing of the sort.
However, China is willing to send cargo to space for almost nothing. They aren’t dependent upon profits in the beginning. They’d rather lose billions to corner the market. How many billions is Elon Musk willing to lose to try and keep his business?
Neither are we.
Tofu drang rockets
Now we will have cheap Chinese rockets failing over our heads.
China is admitting they cannot afford to supply their own space station.
This is a negotiation tactic aimed at getting a good deal from SpaceX to do it.
It’s not just about getting a good deal, it’s about the technology SpaceX is using.
Why develop the ability to land the boosters like SpaceX does when you can get it given to you by SpaceX.
No other organization out there that launches rockets into space is landing their boosters for reuse. SpaceX has made it look routine, I’m sure other countries and companies would love to get their hands on that technology.
If China were going to use SpaceX for launches to their Space Station, they will require the launch facility to be in China and they will demand like they always do, access to the technology behind the launches.
On what rocket will that price point be possible?
SpaceX set a price, how much is it costing China to put that tonnage to space?
In otherwords theyknow this technology is the future and they’re working on being competitive.
We have a winner!
One reads as an excerpt: "NASA pays SpaceX."
Remember when the US government actually had a space program, and didn't need third-party operators? I do.
As long as they pinky swear that would be ok. /s
Musk is hard to beat because he did what I thought was foolish and impossible - land his booster stages for reuse.
I thought that the propellent required for a soft landing of the booster stage would take too much away from the cargo payload capacity of the Falcon, but I was only partly right.
When SpaceX needs to launch a maximum payload to high or geosynchronous orbit, it will expend the booster rather than try to recover it. But for most payloads, there is enough excess lift capacity for recovery fuel.
Caveat Emptor.
You get what you pay for.
You pay your dollar you takes your chance...................
“Lying” is to China as a hammer is to a nail.
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