
Blue Origin plans to charge at least $200K for space rides - myroon5
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-blueorigin-exclusive/jeff-bezos-plans-to-charge-at-least-200000-for-space-rides-sources-idUSKBN1K301R
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chx
I'd be happy to take out a mortgage if this ride includes going around the
Earth at least once. If it's just a go up, be up very briefly then I'd be less
enthusiastic.

In other words, I am not Besos-rich but hell yes, I am going to _space_!

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endianswap
Yeah, I share the same sentiment. 200k+ for a few minutes in zero-g just isn't
enough for me, but if it we're a few hours in zero-g as we go around the globe
once? That'd be awesome and I'd easily justify that price.

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trevyn
Parabolic flight is about $5k and gets you a few minutes of zero-g in several
30-second chunks.

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chx
Ooooooo this sounds amazing, thanks for the tip.

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lettergram
I don't see how having a loss leader for viewing space is going to work out
for them financially. What are you going to upsell?

Although I do recognize this doesn't really appear to be a purely commercial
venture, yet.

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Robotbeat
Costs per passenger for a reusable vehicle like this are largely a function of
launch rate. Launch a few per year, it'll lose millions. Launch a hundred, and
they'll make plenty of money.

Additionally, you should highly doubt this kind of outside estimate of cost
per New Shepard launch. It sounds like they used the same costs as you would
expect for a fully expendable rocket like Falcon 1e class (same first stage
thrust, for instance), even though New Shepard is fully reusable.

And lastly, these _suborbital_ New Shepard launches are also a big
advertisement for _orbital_ New Glenn launches which are orders of magnitude
longer in duration. New Glenn could also take people around the Moon or, with
the (eventually) reusable "Blue Moon" lander that Blue Origin is also
developing, to the Moon's surface and back. So there's actually a lot of
upsell, and I believe they've been explicit about using New Shepard to upsell
for eventual orbital flights.

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rory096
>Additionally, you should highly doubt this kind of outside estimate of cost
per New Shepard launch. It sounds like they used the same costs as you would
expect for a fully expendable rocket like Falcon 1e class (same first stage
thrust, for instance), even though New Shepard is fully reusable.

The article discusses intended _price_ , not cost. And $1.2 million/flight is
significantly less than Falcon 1.

>So there's actually a lot of upsell, and I believe they've been explicit
about using New Shepard to upsell for eventual orbital flights.

Definitely. It's also important to note that New Shepard and New Glenn have
significant technology overlap - NS development costs won't have to be
amortized by passenger flights alone.

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Cogito
From the article:

> While Blue Origin has not disclosed its per-flight operating costs, Teal
> Group aerospace analyst Marco Caceres estimated each flight could cost the
> firm about $10 million. With six passengers per trip, that would mean losing
> millions of dollars per launch, at least initially.

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badrabbit
Honestly,I would be more willing to pay for a ride into the Mariana trench or
other extremely deep ocean expeditions. I get it's about the experience but
imagine seeing creatures few people (if anyone) has ever seen. I read
something the other day on the lines of "10+ people have been to the moon but
only 3 have been to the Mariana trench".

I always dreamed of going to places here on earth hardly anyone has been
to,space is great but I feel like it wouldn't be very exciting unless I get to
explore and interact with the environment,maybe a lunar expedition will be
available before I get too old.

(Drop me a reply if you know of any jobs in remote places nobody wants to go
to)

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larkeith
Not quite Marianas Trench levels of remote, but the first place that springs
to mind is Antarctica; I'm not familiar with the organization of the various
research stations, but there is presumably some number of support staff needed
on-site to keep everything running.

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bebop
The US contractor is Raytheon and they have job postings on their company
website. Here is the wiki for their operations:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raytheon_Polar_Services_Compan...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raytheon_Polar_Services_Company)

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tbabb
Is Blue Origin's business model exclusively space tourism? If so, I think
that's unlikely to sustain them.

SpaceX is busy building the intercontinental railroad to space; if Blue Origin
is not building toward a similarly ambitious and lucrative goal it looks like
they're going to get left behind.

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handbanana
Their model is not exclusively space tourism. I imagine this is either PR or
fundraising (or a mix of the two).

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larkeith
Mainly PR - at $200k/person, you'll be losing millions on every flight.

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danielvf
Non-orbital flight takes ludicrously less power and rocket than getting to
orbit. Flying six people per flight would easily be profitable on a per flight
basis, ignoring development costs.

And the development stuff is already a paid cost, and a part of reaching the
real goal of AWS, but for space.

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arijun
I don’t see where they come up with the estimate of $10 million per flight?
Given the full reusability of the rocket, the cost per flight will be far, far
below that?

