space shuttle cost per astronaut

NASA’s dependence on Russia to send humans to space has been expensive.

NASA’s inspector general has estimated the per-seat cost for SpaceX at $55 million, while the price of a Russian Soyuz seat has averaged $80 million in recent years. Boeing’s Starliner capsule made its premiere last December with Rosie the mannequin, but ended up in the wrong orbit.

For the first time in nearly a decade, U.S. astronauts are about to blast into orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil.

Astronauts prepare for SpaceX mission to International Space Station. It will be just the fifth time NASA astronauts strap into a spanking new U.S. space system for liftoff — following Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and shuttle. They’ll lend a hand with experiments and possibly spacewalks, before ending their mission with an Atlantic splashdown, a scene not seen for a half-century. It has built-in escape engines designed to fling the capsule off the rocket in an emergency, from the time Hurley and Behnken strap in until they reach orbit. Wayne Hale, a retired space shuttle flight director and program manager who serves on the NASA Advisory Council, views SpaceX’s upcoming astronaut flight as an experiment with lessons carrying over to Artemis, NASA’s new-generation, moon-landing effort. “John and I had our ejection seats, but they wouldn’t have done much for us on liftoff,” sending them straight through the rockets’ trail of fire. Hale and others contend SpaceX and Boeing could be flying astronauts by now if Congress had provided more funding early on. A capsule is generally simpler and thus safer than a winged spacecraft like the shuttle, Hurley and Behnken noted. A seat in a Soyuz capsule costs $86 million today, an increase of nearly 400 percent over about a decade and a half. Liftoff is set for 4:33 p.m. EDT Wednesday. The curtain rises next Wednesday with the scheduled liftoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule with two NASA astronauts, a test flight years in the making.

But the next month, the capsule exploded on the engine test stand at Cape Canaveral, a monumental setback. In a touch of Musk showmanship — he also runs the electric car company — Hurley and Behnken will ride to the launch pad in a gull-winged Tesla Model X, white with black trim just like the astronauts’ spacesuits and the rocket itself. While Florida’s Space Coast has seen plenty of launches since the shuttle’s farewell tour in 2011 — even at the height of the coronavirus pandemic — they were for satellites, robotic explorers and space station supplies. “My heart is sitting right here,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said, pointing to her throat at a news conference earlier this month, “and I think it’s going to stay there until we get Bob and Doug safely back from the International Space Station.”. “They remind themselves.”.

NASA’s newest test pilots, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, are launching from home turf with SpaceX presiding over the countdown. The longest previous hiatus between astronaut launches stretched six years — from Apollo-Soyuz in 1975 to the shuttle’s debut in 1981 with Crippen and John Young. Vice President Mike Pence, chairman of the National Space Council, is also going, and President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday that he’s thinking of attending, too. The contracts with NASA are worth billions. Among the exceptions: both astronaut wives — who have flown in space themselves — and their young sons. In terms of launch power, the relatively small Falcon 9 has far less than the space shuttle did, another layer of safety.

The Dragon riders appreciate Musk’s hands-on approach. “On more than one occasion he has looked both Bob and I right in the eye and said, ‘Hey, if there’s anything you guys are not comfortable with or that you’re seeing, please tell me and we’ll fix it.’” Hurley said. Hurley, 53, a retired Marine, and Behnken, 49, an Air Force colonel, will spend one to four months aboard the orbiting lab, currently down to a three-man, half-size crew. There’s even a curtained-off toilet. While trumpeting the return of astronaut launches, NASA is urging spectators to stay away because of the pandemic. “This crew will have a good escape system,” Crippen said. And for the first time in the history of human spaceflight, a private company is running the show. The drama unfolds from the exact spot where men flew to the moon and the last space shuttle soared from Kennedy Space Center. Adding to the appeal is the flash generated by Musk, SpaceX’s chief executive, designer and founder who shot his red Tesla Roadster into outer space two years ago during the first flight of a supersized Falcon Heavy rocket. Only three countries have launched humans — Russia, the U.S. and China in that order — making SpaceX’s attempt all the more impressive. NASA’s inspector general has estimated the per-seat cost for SpaceX at $55 million, while the price of a Russian Soyuz seat has averaged $80 million in recent years. “Regardless of who might get there first, it’s a win for America,” Ferguson said. Crippen also wishes the shuttle’s replacement was more futuristic-looking and landed on a runway. NASA’s commercial crew effort builds on industry’s space station shipments, now in the eighth year.

The walls are gleaming white, not dull gray. At the suggestion of its technicians, SpaceX added photos of Hurley and Behnken to every work order as a constant reminder that lives — not just freight — are at stake. “We’re building momentum toward a much more exciting future,” said John Logsdon, founder of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute and a professor emeritus.

But beaches near Kennedy are now open, and the local sheriff is welcoming visitors even though inside the space center, the number of guests will be severely limited. Launching crews again from Florida is sure to fire up the public, Logsdon noted. The cosmic-size shift to private companies allows NASA to zero in on deep space travel. Musk’s California-based company was also first out the gate with its souped-up, tricked-out Dragon crew capsule. An earlier NASA test pilot, Robert Crippen, wishes at least one space shuttle had kept flying until a replacement was ready.

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