Specific transportation costs to GEO — past, present and future

Abstract

The paper presents the analysis of space transportation cost development for the geosynchronous orbit (GEO). While the launch cost increased subtancially since 1963 — the launch year of the first GEO satellite — the satellite mass increased from 36 kg to more than 2800 kg in GEO (BoM). Thus the specific cost (launch cost per kg or per channel) have dramatically been reduced from 550 000 $/kg to only 36 000 $/kg in 2002. The reason, however, is almost only the “law of scale”, i.e. the increased payload mass, but not improvement of the launch systems. An further cost reduction on the launch vehicle side is possible by the introduction of reusable launch systems (RLVs) by a factor 2 to 4, depending on the vehicle design concept.