Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
From: henry@spsystems.net (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Cost?
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1998 16:06:44 GMT

In article <367CA9D7.3131BB97@ibm-pc.org>,
Jorge R. Frank <jrfrank@ibm-pc.org> wrote:
>2) Annual program cost - take the annual shuttle budget ($3 billion) and
>divide by the number of flights in a year (5 in 1998, an average of 7.3
>from 1992 to 1997).  This yields $400-600 million per flight.  This is
>the amount that would be saved from ending the program.

Small quibble:  if the goal is an estimate of shuttle operating costs, one
should adjust this number upward slightly to allow for (a) shuttle-related
facilities costs which aren't charged to the shuttle budget and (b) the
need to occasionally keep on shelling out about the same amount for a
while when the fleet is grounded due to technical problems (which has
happened twice and is reasonably likely to happen again sometime).
--
Mass-market software technology has |  Henry Spencer   henry@spsystems.net
been deteriorating, not improving.  |      (aka henry@zoo.toronto.edu)