Why Are LAUNCH COSTS So High?
Peter A. Taylor, 2004
http://home.earthlink.net/~peter.a.taylor/launch.htm
Why do space launches cost so much? Specifically, why are the costs so far out of line with the cost of seemingly comparable airplane operations? Fuel is about 15% of the operations and maintenance (O&M) cost of a typical military airplane, and 38% for commercial aircraft, according to Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach, 1992, by Daniel P. Raymer. Space launches should be more energy intensive than airplane flights, so one would expect that propellants would be a larger fraction of the total operations cost for a launch industry that was as mature as the airline industry. Why are the non-fuel costs orders of magnitude higher for rockets?
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