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As a reference a new Cessna 172 is $432,000 [1] and that is not a high tech aircraft.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/erictegler/2021/04/28/prices-fo...

This feels like comparing potatoes and pineapples.

A new Cessna vs a used Falcon 9 launch hardly seems like a fair comparison. The cost of the rocket is written off as externalized. The actual satellites are not factored in at all. Really what we are comparing here is the cost of an operation vs the cost of an airplane. The economics still seem dubious.

And a Cessna 172 has to be human safe.

Indeed, and the $432,000 is the price on the consumer market. A mass order of Zephyrs by, say, the British Government is sure to land a much smaller price tag per unit then a lone hobby pilot can expect when buying a single airplane.

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