SpaceX successfully launched a Taiwanese satellite into space and ... lost millions of US dollars

The SpaceX company, which Ilon Musk stubbornly develops, is making significant progress in terms of creating missiles with returnable first stages. They can be reused (of course, after assessing the state of experts and repair). On Thursday, SpaceX conducted a successful launch of the Taiwanese satellite Formosat 5 , and then returned to the ground another step, gradually lowering it to its platform, which is located in the ocean.

The Falcon 9 rocket launched from the California Vanderberg cosmodrome. The communication satellite reached the calculated orbit in 11 minutes after the launch. SpaceX representatives said that this is the fifteenth launch, with a successful return to Earth of the first stage. Launching, putting the satellite into orbit and returning the stage went off without a hitch. From a technological point of view, everything is fine. But this, unfortunately, cannot be said about the financial side of things. Now SpaceX has lost more than ten million US dollars.

Considering the fact that commercial launches of SpaceX are already relatively inexpensive, a space company can fix the financial gap for a long time. It is reported that instead of $ 62 million, the usual price that SpaceX customers pay for bringing their vehicles into space, Taiwan, which created the first satellite in its history, paid only $ 23 million.
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And this is not a charity - it is extremely difficult for SpaceX companies to make discounts for someone, since the profitability of the entire business is not very high anyway. So how did Taiwan pay almost three times the usual price for bringing its satellite to space? The fact is that initially the satellite should have been launched in 2013. The contract was made to send a small satellite with a small (relatively) rocket - Falcon 1e. The amount specified in the contract - the same $ 23 million.

Formosat 5 - the first Taiwanese satellite, which was built with the money of this state. And all this time, the inhabitants of the country expected that their apparatus was about to appear in orbit. But something constantly interfered. For example, in 2011, SpaceX decided to focus its efforts on new Falñon 9 rockets, abandoning plans to create a Falcon 1e lightweight class carrier. After some time, SpaceX decided to postpone the launch of the satellite, using a more powerful rocket. As a result, the launch of the satellite was postponed to 2015. Then the start will be postponed due to organizational issues.

So, SpaceX began to look for a “partner” to the creators of a communication satellite in order to fully load its launch vehicle. We are talking about adding a secondary payload - 90 small satellites of the Spacef Industries company. But it did not work out - because of delays, the company decided to launch it with the help of another contractor. As a result, her companions were launched using an Indian rocket . The National Space Organization remains the only client for a particular Falcon 9 launch.

Then the representatives of Taiwan failed, because there were problems with the readiness of the satellite. And idle time all increased.


In 2015, the launch was again postponed. This time the cause was an accident during which both the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon ship were destroyed. In May 2016, the satellite passed pre-flight testing with a launch appointment for September. But summer 2016 brought another setback - an accident when Falcon 9 exploded. It happened on Cape Canaveral, on the launch pad. And again, the transfer of rocket launch, again waiting.

At the same time, the representatives of Taiwan were patient. They did not look for an alternative "space driver" like Orbital ATK, but preferred to wait for fulfillment of obligations from SpaceX. This company, by the way, promised to take away from the total amount of launch 1.25% every month of delay. It is not yet clear whether this clause was fulfilled, or because of the reasons mentioned above, where the delay for the postponement was not only on SpaceX, the interest was not subtracted from the basic launch price.

What was the result? The company SpaceX did not say anything about the commercial component of this contract. But experts estimate that the launch cost Taiwan $ 23 million. Usually, SpaceX earns about 40% of the total price of putting the cargo into orbit. At this time, the money did not work out - instead, the company Ilona Mask lost $ 14 million (the cost of launching the Falcon 9 is $ 37 million).

True, the positive point in all is that it was possible to return the first stage of the rocket to Earth. If the company can use it again, the losses will not be so significant. The fact is that the first step, according to Mask, its creation costs $ 26 million. As a result, if one of the Falcon 9 launches is made using this step, the company will cover its losses and even make a profit. By the way, this year SpaceX caught up with Russia in terms of the number of launches , with 5 months left before the end of the year.

In general, the company is doing well, even this trouble cannot be considered critical. Let me remind you that Musk directs all his efforts to the achievement of his main goal - the flight to Mars.