Value chain · CLM-1060
In plain terms
The 1980 review did not agree with itself on how much of a satellite's cost was rockets: one paper said over a third, the programme's own table said a quarter of each satellite but nearly half of the money to get to the first one, and one paper's launch rate was double everyone else's.
The claim as recorded
The April 1980 Program Review states the transportation share of SPS cost five ways: "from 35-40 percent" (NASA MSFC's transportation perspective), "more than one fourth of the total production cost" (Boeing and Rockwell's launch paper), 24 per cent of the 11.5 billion 1977-dollar average unit and 44 per cent of the 102.5 billion through the first unit (JSC's cost table: transportation 2.8 and 45.5), 29 per cent of an 11.7 billion 1978-dollar unit (Boeing's economics paper: 3.4), and "a twenty percent (20%) transportation cost" (the offshore launch site paper); the same MSFC paper states flight rates of "up to 155 POTV flights, 159 PLV flights, 27 EOTV flights, and 722 HLLV flights in a calendar year", nearly twice the 375 to 387 HLLV flights a year of the 1981 transportation volume and the JSC data book.
Evidence behind this: T3, five conference papers' cost shares and one paper's flight rates, on different bases, from text and two rendered tables.
Scope and limits
Five papers, four contractors, three dollar-years and at least two denominators (per unit; through the first unit). Wales's 722 flights are not tied on the page to a payload or a satellite mass.
What it assumes
2.8/11.5 = 24.3 per cent and 45.5/102.5 = 44.4 per cent are arithmetic on the stated figures; the source gives the lines, not the shares.
Where it comes from
PDF p.215 / printed 193, normalised: "The transportation system represents a significant part of the overall program cost, from 35-40 percent. Payload delivery cost goals of 15 to 30 dollars per kilogram"; "The 30-year SPS construction period requires up to 155 POTV flights, 159 PLV flights, 27 EOTV flights, and 722 HLLV flights in a calendar year"; HLLV "payload capability of .25M to 1.0M pounds to a 485 Km, 31.6 degree orbit". PDF p.222 / printed 200: "The cost of space transportation operations represents, in the reference SPS system, more than one fourth of the total production cost of the SPS s, even though the unit cost in dollars per kilogram is projected to be much less than that presently foreseen for the Space Shuttle. Three-fourths of the cost is contributed by the launch systems". PDF p.168 / printed 145, Table 2, render read: Transportation .05, 5.0, 6.5, 30.0, 4.0, total 45.5, average SPS 2.8; Total .4, 8.1, 23.0, 57.5, 13.5, 102.5, 11.5; "All Costs in Billions of 1977 $"; "No official estimates exist. This is one of several estimates." PDF p.614 / printed 594, Figure 1, render read: Ground-based Costs $4.1B 35%, Electrical Equipment 0.9 8%, Transportation 3.4 29%, Space Structures, Cells 3.3 28%, $11.7B 100%, 1978$. PDF p.231 / printed 209: "Assuming a cost of $60 billion for a five (5) gigawatt Solar Power Satellite (SPS) with a twenty percent (20%) transportation cost".
Basis: per cent of programme or unit cost; HLLV flights per year
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-037 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1060
CLM-1060, Energy Aperture, as of 1980-04.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-449
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