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Comment by rpmisms | Hacker News Reader

Well, we're all here for a moment in the history books. This is crazy. Space travel is now affordable for the rich, not just the hyper-wealthy.

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Don't fret, the poor will be herded up into space to mine the asteroids eventually.

We can’t even herd them to pick crops any more, I doubt we won’t have robotics ready by then.

For our robot overlords (did I say overlords? I meant protectors.)

I don't think they will be robots. Maybe cyborgs.

What a time to be alive!

That said, I’d like to live in your world where having an expendable $55 million per seat is merely rich.

The trip was paid for by one person, so it's a $220 million personal expense. For a 3-day trip, this has to be the biggest expense per unit of whatever by anyone, ever.

The ISS orbits 16 times per day. In 3 days roughly 50 orbits.

$220M / (40000*50) = $110/Km. Still expensive, but at least we now have a number (a trip from NYC to Paris, first class cabin, is roughly $1/Km)

Source on the price?

There isn't one because it isn't public. Maybe there are some numbers for how much SpaceX charges NASA but almost all missions involving the military or NASA cost more than civilian launches due to extra requirements. Especially so when they are not just ordered on an ad-hoc basis but instead are part of large contracts that include development funding.

A Falcon 9 launch can cost under $30 million, I'd be shocked if Mr. Isaacman paid more than $100 million, all told.

I'd be shocked if SpaceX didn't treat this launch with all the care and preparation and expense of a manned NASA launch. Any issue with this launch would ground F9/Dragon and require full investigation the same as an issue with a NASA launch.

No. Falcon 9 never costs less then $50-60 million for costumers. $30 million is maybe internal cost for SpaceX (likely SpaceX is lower by now).

The Dragon however is more expensive then the rocket itself.

I would be shocked if it was less then $150M.

Space Adventures is selling seats on their planned SpaceX mission next year for a cool $60M a pop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Adventures_Crew_Dragon_m...

On a for-profit mission. Who knows how much of that is going into their coffers?

True, but even low margins on $60 Million could be millions.

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