Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Falconman21 t1_iy6ihnl wrote

This is possibly the most outrageous over pay for only THREE GPS satellites.

It could also be the steal of the century, I have no clue what satellites cost. That information just isn’t useful to me.

80

taichi22 t1_iy6kz09 wrote

There are probably only a handful of people within the US who could even reasonably answer this question in depth, as you’re talking about LEO logistics, and the value thereof.

Like, you can look at historical satellite prices and adjust for inflation per se, but to really answer the question in depth we’re looking more at stuff like where the private space industry is at now in terms of economy of scale, what components are in the satellites (if they secretly have satellite killer abilities, for example, or spy cameras, all shit that would be black boxed on the budget) etc etc.

It’s a lot of money, but who knows if it’s a good deal or not? Almost impossible to say unless you’re an expert in the field.

27

DrBrotatoJr t1_iy6oien wrote

Are going in LEO? I read the article as going in MEO to augment existing MEO orbiters.

11

sleepyzalophus t1_iy6yn52 wrote

These are going to MEO :)

It’s possible he meant Launch & Early Orbit checkout… but it’s hard to tell. SDA are the only Space Force org looking at putting PNT in LEO.

9

Falconman21 t1_iy7uvc9 wrote

I consider myself an expert in most fields, but satellites are just too far way sometimes. I mean it’s SPACE we’re talking about!

0

DLBaker t1_iy7bzfu wrote

Would be a great way to launder moneh from the Goberment though.

−3

sevksytime t1_iy6mv1u wrote

Well I think it was smart of them to order them on Black Friday. They probably got a pretty good deal on them.

22

series_hybrid t1_iy8lvug wrote

I think they got free shipping, but...I suspect Lockheed Martin raised the initial quote in anticipation of this...

1

Henhouse20 t1_iy6y63g wrote

$250 million for a GPS satellite is certainly not outrageous. The govt is getting a discount by buying multiple at a time and leveraging the high up front cost of the first ones that include the design cost and higher risk of proving out the constellation

22

sleepyzalophus t1_iy6yvun wrote

$250M per SV isn’t bad. The IIIs have historically ranged from $250M-$330M, depending on how you account for total program costs.

15

GodofAeons t1_iy7f4jg wrote

According to the article, they average around $250 million each. Or at least, they did back in 2018 when the contract was originally agreed upon. I'd argue that it's a fair deal with inflation/rising costs of everything since then.

7

dangle321 t1_iy7ujw1 wrote

I don't know what a whole satellite costs, but we are making and selling telemetry tracking and control transponders with integrated data payloads in the order of 10s of millions of EUR. So if just the radio used for sending the control signals to and from the satellite range into the 10 million EUR range, this doesn't doesn't crazy to me.

4