Value chain · CLM-1029
In plain terms
In 1980 the programme's own accounting had rockets at roughly one dollar in four of a satellite's cost and nearly one in two of the money needed to develop the system, and it noted that the whole programme through the first satellite cost about what NASA had spent from its founding through Apollo.
The claim as recorded
The programme's 1980 statements put transportation at about a quarter of satellite cost and nearly half of development, not the 35 to 40 per cent of one paper in the April 1980 Program Review: the Workshop states a total of "approximately $92 billion (1979)" through the first 5-GWe satellite with transportation "~45 per cent of the R,T&D costs and ~25 per cent of the initial 5 GWe SPS", half of it the HLLV, with Earth-to-LEO 60 to 70 per cent of recurring transport and LEO-to-GEO about 20; the same report puts personnel transport at 10 per cent of transport and 2.5 per cent of the total, which is 25 per cent; and Battelle puts transport at $2.8 billion against a total of $12.5 billion per satellite and derives from those costs an implicit transportation staff of 67,000 of 300,000, 22 per cent, while noting Apollo's launch vehicles were 38 per cent of Apollo and NASA's whole 1959-76 outlay in 1977 dollars, $118 billion, "approximately the current estimate of the cost of the SPS through the first platform".
Evidence behind this: T3, three cost shares on three denominators from two documents.
Scope and limits
Three different denominators (RT&D, first-satellite, per-satellite recurring) from two documents; Figure 35 is drawn without numbers. The 22 per cent is a staffing-implied share, not a cost line. The "35 to 40 per cent" is one paper's sentence in the April 1980 Program Review (Wales, SRC-449 PDF p.215), not the review's figure: its own cost tables give 24 per cent per average unit (Piland, PDF p.168) and 29 per cent (Johnson, PDF p.614), and 44 per cent of development plus first unit (CLM-1060, back-linked 2026-09-19).
What it assumes
That the Workshop's $92 billion and Battelle's $12.5 billion per satellite are the same cost basis as the JSC data book; neither document derives them.
Where it comes from
PDF p.233 / IV-4, render read: "An estimated cost of approximately $92 billion (1979) was derived from cost-estimating relationships and includes all research, technology and development and production of the first 5-GWe SPS. As shown in Figure 35a, transportation represents ~45 per cent of the R,T&D costs and ~25 per cent of the initial 5 GWe SPS, shown on Figure 35b. Of the transportation costs approximately half is for the HLLV." "The recurring transportation, as shown in Figure 35c, is dominated by ESLEO transport which represents ~60 to 70 per cent of the costs and the recurring costs from LEO to GEO is ~20 per cent." PDF p.167 / II-19: "approximately 10 per cent of the total SPS transportation cost, or about 2.5 per cent of the total SPS cost." SRC-532 PDF p.96 / 3-23, render read: "The transportation cost per SPS is $2.8 billion with two SPSs per year ... For transport at $12.5 billion per SPS ... The implicit transportation staff is 67,000 out of a total of 300,000 SPS staff, or 22 percent". PDF p.64 / 2-30: "the cost for launch vehicles for the Apollo program, including both vehicle and engine development was $9.8 billion or 38 percent of the Apollo program and 17 percent of the total program."
Basis: per cent of programme cost; USD 1979 billions
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-037 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1029
CLM-1029, Energy Aperture, as of 1980.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-532
- CLM-1024The 1979 government estimate put a heavy-lift flight at about ten million dollars of the day, most of it people refurbishing the vehicle...CLM-1026The electric ferry takes half a year to climb to geostationary orbit but burns about an eighth of a kilogram of argon for every kilogram it...CLM-1027Getting a crew from low orbit up to the construction site took half a day and a stage the size of a small airliner, refuelled at the top...CLM-1028Building the rockets was priced at seventeen billion 1977 dollars and running them at about 2.8 billion per satellite, or roughly sixty...CLM-1030The independent 1980 cost review said the government's rocket numbers were fair for the stage the programme was at, then added spare...CLM-1031A launcher a third the size of the reference one would cost about a fifth more per kilogram to fly and need four launches a day instead of...CLM-1033At the higher of NASA's two peak figures, the launches would have needed about 6 per cent of US daily hydrogen output and 30 per cent of...CLM-1034The programme's transportation workshop said the schedule was probably unrealistic, and the programme's cost reviewer said the launcher...
- Also from SRC-555
- CLM-1023The programme's last word on its rockets describes a launcher of about 11,000 tonnes at liftoff flying about once a day, gives fleet sizes...CLM-1025In 1980 the people building the case set themselves a goal of thirty dollars a kilogram to low orbit, hoped for fifteen later, and said in...CLM-1026The electric ferry takes half a year to climb to geostationary orbit but burns about an eighth of a kilogram of argon for every kilogram it...CLM-1027Getting a crew from low orbit up to the construction site took half a day and a stage the size of a small airliner, refuelled at the top...CLM-1031A launcher a third the size of the reference one would cost about a fifth more per kilogram to fly and need four launches a day instead of...CLM-1033At the higher of NASA's two peak figures, the launches would have needed about 6 per cent of US daily hydrogen output and 30 per cent of...CLM-1034The programme's transportation workshop said the schedule was probably unrealistic, and the programme's cost reviewer said the launcher...