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Re:Russian Proton Rocket crashes Seconds after Launch by leoedin on Tuesday July 02, 2013 @09:49AM (#5977709)
The cost of a SpaceX launch reflects not only manufacturing costs but also the cost of development. The cost of a Proton launch (and similarly for other low cost ICBM based Russian launchers) doesn't reflect the developmment cost because it was designed a long time ago and borne by the russian government. The true cost of a Proton launch is much higher than what a user would pay to International Launch Services.
Re:Russian Proton Rocket crashes Seconds after Launch by solomatov on Tuesday July 02, 2013 @10:43AM (#5978079)
The true cost is adequate because there was a very large number of total launches (around 400). What is the reason for launching a rocket if it leads to a loss.
Re:Russian Proton Rocket crashes Seconds after Launch by danmaz74 on Tuesday July 02, 2013 @03:37PM (#5980214)
The cost of a Proton launch reflects the fact that development costs were amortized long ago.