How much does it cost to launch a rocket? No one has to wonder anymore as United Launch Alliance recently unveiled its RocketBuilder website where potential customers can find exactly how much it costs to launch a rocket to space using the Atlas V and Delta IV boosters.
The web tool is also capable of configuring a rocket depending on the need of the clients and provide them an estimate of how much would it cost to launch the rocket with their payload to space. Many favor ULA rockets due to their 100 percent safety and success track record. The website will be able to help consumers identify their savings through calculations.
"Nobody really chooses to have low reliability, to blow their rocket up or to be late; it's something that they strive to avoid, but it's very difficult to obtain," Tory Bruno, ULA CEO said in a press conference. "These are durable differentiators, and what we're doing here is making them visible to customers so they can make an informed choice," Bruno added.
On the RocketBuilder website, anyone can calculate how much would an Atlas V and Delta IV booster rocket will cost along with the target savings per rocket based on the reliability of the spacecraft. The cost can also be computed with the influence of ULA's clean and on time launch records and guidance systems.
The RocketBuilder tool is also created to help ULA promote its recent move to try and make rocket launches cheaper. For example, an Atlas V that can carry a medium satellite payload to space costs $109 million. The said price is already lower than what it costs before.
"So $109 [million] is a pretty big change," Tory Bruno ULA CEO said in a statement published by CBS News. "And that is the result of an entire company transformation we've been going through. We have entered into strategic partnerships in our supply chain and achieved vast savings there," Bruno added.
The CEO said that their 10 years experience in the field allowed the company to be able to release RocketBuilder and to somehow try to lessen the cost of rocket launches since they can also build spacecraft faster that it used to take time in producing the ships.
ULA is also planning to release its new type of rocket, the Vulcan and a new liquid oxygen type to be developed by Blue Origins, according to a report by NASA Spaceflight.com.