Advertisement

Updated July 28th, 2022 at 18:43 IST

Russia claims missions on Soyuz cheaper than Elon Musk's SpaceX and Boeing's Starliner

Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft offers flights more economically advantageous than US space companies such as SpaceX and Boeing, a Roscosmos research arm claimed.

Reported by: Harsh Vardhan
Russia
Image: NASA/GCTC | Image:self
Advertisement

Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft offers significantly cheaper flights than the US’ private launch providers SpaceX and Boeing, claimed Agat, an economic and scientific research institute of Russian space agency Roscosmos. Currently, SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, and Boeing Space are two major US companies in line to provide launch services. The comparison was made with the Orel spacecraft in mind, which is a project being developed by Roscosmos.

"Already today, the transport system on the basis of Russia’s Soyuz MS manned spaceship is more economically advantageous and the price for astronauts or space tourists depends on extra services and the market situation", Agat said in a report, as per TASS news agency. 

Moreover, the organisation cited NASA's estimate which suggests that one launch in SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft costs around $210 million whereas Boeing's Starliner launch costs around $345 million. While both companies have won NASA contracts to transport cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX is the only company that has a license to launch astronauts. While Agat did not reveal the exact mission costs on a Russian spacecraft, it earlier claimed that missions to the Moon would be four times lower than that in an American spacecraft.

Boeing, on the other hand, has a long way to go as it recently conducted a successful uncrewed ISS mission and is aiming for a crewed launch soon. When licensed for crewed missions, Starliner's cost would be roughly $87 million for each astronaut as per the current estimates. However, Boeing will aim at reducing this launch cost to $50 million by increasing the number of Starliner seats to seven as opposed to the SpaceX Dragon capsule's four seats, which cost $53 million each. 

Russia-US launch deal

The report comes ahead of the Crew-5 mission, wherein SpaceX will launch a new batch of four astronauts to the space station in September. This crew would also include Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who is currently the only active female member in Roscosmos. She would board the US spacecraft under a cross-flight deal that was made by Roscosmos and NASA. Under this deal, NASA will send a Russian in a US spacecraft in return for launching one of its astronauts in a Soyuz capsule. 

This deal also extends to the Crew-6 mission which includes Andrei Fedyaev, a Russian cosmonaut flying to the space station in 2023. 

Advertisement

Published July 28th, 2022 at 18:42 IST

Your Voice. Now Direct.

Send us your views, we’ll publish them. This section is moderated.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Trending Quicks

Election Commission of India
a few seconds ago
Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell
2 minutes ago
Maharashtra Politics: Did Govinda Say Congress Ignored Him For 13 Years?
4 minutes ago
Torrent Power
7 minutes ago
Securing a Loan Against Property Despite Inconsistent Employment History
9 minutes ago
Riyan Parag
12 minutes ago
Watch King Kong X Godzilla to Crew, visit your nearest PVR INOX cinema this week
14 minutes ago
Hema Malini as Basanti in Sholay
14 minutes ago
Raveena Tandon
16 minutes ago
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Whatsapp logo