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A comment on SpaceX Successfully Soft-Landed Booster Rocket in the Atlantic. Parent comment

Re:SpaceX Successfully Soft-Landed Booster Rocket in the Atl... by mikeash on Friday April 25, 2014 @02:18PM (#7648174)
Musk said a normal Falcon 9 launch is $60 million. I'm not sure exactly what's involved with "Government-driven costs in addition to the cost of launch services" but I'd hazard a guess that they're not $40 million per launch. Could end up being a nicely profitable sale for SpaceX if they can pull it off.
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Re:SpaceX Successfully Soft-Landed Booster Rocket in the Atl... by kindredlight on Friday April 25, 2014 @02:42PM (#7648324)
Musk estimates that Air Force "mission assurance" requirements would cost $30 million, hence a $90 million ("under $100 million") price-tag.
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Re:SpaceX Successfully Soft-Landed Booster Rocket in the Atl... by mikeash on Friday April 25, 2014 @02:55PM (#7648399)
Do you happen to know just what is involved there? I'm not too familiar with this stuff, and I'm curious.
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Re:SpaceX Successfully Soft-Landed Booster Rocket in the Atl... by arjunnarayan on Friday April 25, 2014 @04:14PM (#7648791)
Elon Musk explains it in this answer to Senator Shelby. The whole committe hearing is interesting, but your specific question is answered at 53:02 in the video, which I link here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_azyt1JhI0#t=3182

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Re:SpaceX Successfully Soft-Landed Booster Rocket in the Atl... by kindredlight on Friday April 25, 2014 @03:07PM (#7648463)
It's poorly-defined, but includes a wide array of reviews, audits, inspections, etc.

See PDF page 17 of http://www.gao.gov/assets/520/511460.pdf

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Re:SpaceX Successfully Soft-Landed Booster Rocket in the Atl... by BrandonMarc on Friday April 25, 2014 @02:21PM (#7648190)
... especially if, as he said, he can reduce his current launch costs by 30% by re-using rockets.
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Re:SpaceX Successfully Soft-Landed Booster Rocket in the Atl... by syncsynchalt on Friday April 25, 2014 @05:01PM (#7649006)
It seems likely the the USAF would specify first-run rockets for the best chance of success, so the USAF would not see a cost reduction unless spacex were to re-purchase the recovered booster or similar (or offered a credit that equated to the same).
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Re:SpaceX Successfully Soft-Landed Booster Rocket in the Atl... by Crito on Friday April 25, 2014 @05:16PM (#7649088)
The USAF buys a launch, not the rocket itself. The recovered stages belong to SpaceX.
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Re:SpaceX Successfully Soft-Landed Booster Rocket in the Atl... by BrandonMarc on Friday April 25, 2014 @06:00PM (#7649281)
True, but then in that situation SpaceX would just not give the 30% cost reduction for the launch. The 30% figure he mentioned was after giving the "under $100M" price point.
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