SpaceX Successfully Soft-Landed Booster Rocket in the Atlantic
Equally large news from today's press conference at the National Press Club - SpaceX is taking on ULA (united launch alliance, a consortium of incumbent players in the market) and the "block buy" allocation of military / national-security launches to ULA.<p>Here's their handout, from one of the reporters there:<p><a href="https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/459734785314013184" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/459734785314013184</a><p>Playing politics a bit, Elon's claiming a ~ 75% reduction in launch costs by using Falcon 9 rockets instead of the block buys allocated to ULA, so he's filing a lawsuit to give his company access to this market. 
He even goes into details of how some of ULA's engines are manufactured in Russia, and given the festivities in the Ukraine our legislators would rather be less dependent on Russia for space access. He even whets the politicians' appetites with his blurb at the bottom describing how $1B per year could instead pay for operating a fleet of A-10's, or 15 Marine Corps battalions, or 12 F-16 squadrons ... or it could instead pay for purchasing 10 F-35's, 2 LCS's, or 50 UH-60 Black Hawks.<p>Politicians (and Beltway reporters) definitely respond to money dangled in front of their face.<p>Here's how he arrives at the ~75% reduction, btw:<p>• ULA annual cost: $3.0-3.5B<p>• ULA cost per launch: ~$460M<p>• Falcon 9 cost: "under $100M"<p>This forum has tons of live-blog style commentary leading up to and during the press conference.<p><a href="http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=lsmvrej5r2jcakuthchhko36i5&topic=34552.0" rel="nofollow">http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=lsmvrej...</a><p>--------------------<p>(edited to clarify about ULA engine sourcing; thanks physcab)