Soyuz ISS flights a gold mine?

[kk434]

In 2001 a soyuz seat did cost 20 mil, couple years later 35 mil. Now NASA will buy one for 50 mil and there is talk about 100 mil in 2014. After the retirement of STS the soyuz is the only game in town and the russians can charge what they want and MAKE A LOT OF MONEY in the process.

 

[Yuri_Armstrong]

In 2001 a soyuz seat did cost 20 mil, couple years later 35 mil. Now NASA will buy one for 50 mil and there is talk about 100 mil in 2014. After the retirement of STS the soyuz is the only game in town and the russians can charge what they want and MAKE A LOT OF MONEY in the process.

Can you provide a source for that?

 

[SteveCNC]

you know at 100 million the profit margin wouldn't be all that huge for a country maybe 60 million at the very most though I would suspect it's somewhat less . It's a lot of money to most people since the majority of us won't earn that much in our lifetimes but for a nation it's really not all that much .

 

[kk434]

The price of soyuz is riseing now as it is the only way to reach ISS, NASA signed a 56 mil/seat for 2013-2014. After that the price will propably rise again. Unfortunately I cant't find the article that sugested a 100 mil price. The latest deal is however described here: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2010/04/06/ ... yuz-rides/

 

[oldAtlas_Eguy]

The Soyuz launch vehicle price is listed at 53 mil. The spacecraft is extra but probably less than 50 mil more. Therefore the Russians would make 50 mil per launch when they sell all three seats. But most likely they will sell only one or two seats. Selling two seats means that they would be able to seend their cosmonaut to the ISS for free. With a minimum of four flights a year to do the required crew rotation and probably one or two more for short duration specialists, the Russians would be able to have 0 outlay for their manned program. With increasednumber of spacecraft flights the cost per craft would actualy decrease.