mark@unicorn.com wrote:
> Michelle Jones [spike66@ibm.net] wrote:
> >far be it from me to be a naysayer, as this offends my
> >techno-optimistnature, but as one who works in the field, i suspect this
> >is sales-speak.
>
> Gary Hudson is a pretty smart guy; if he says he can do it, I think he has
> a good chance of doing it. And, frankly, an 80% reduction over inflated
> government launch costs shouldn't be that hard.
>
Yeah, he is pretty sharp. Since current US govt costs are $10,000 per pound, he would bring it down to $2,000 per lb, which is in line with the cheapest Chinese and Russian launchers. The biggest benefit of his system in this respect is that since the US govt has a law that all US launches of US payloads using imported launchers from China or Russia must still be charged at least 95% of the charge that the lowest domestic launcher would cost, Hudson's project will bring back a lot of launches into the US that are currently being performed by the Chinese and Russians for US multinational corps in their home countries, so it will mostly benefit the Mission Controllers union here in the US, making more jobs for US technicians....
Mike Lorrey