While they often cooperate with each other, NASA and SpaceX are undeniably rival entities that are gunning against one another in the modern age space race.
Both space agencies have expressed their desires and plans to reach the moon, and NASA often enlists the aid of SpaceX when it comes to transporting its astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS).
Most recently it was a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that successfully returned stranded astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore back to Earth after their Boeing Starliner craft experienced technical issues on board the ISS.
While NASA is likely happy to welcome and outsource the assistance of SpaceX, it becomes incredibly easy to understand why they're so willing to cooperate with Elon Musk's private space empire when you look at the cost each company incurs when launching a rocket.
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As reported by Technowize, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket sets the company back around $67,000,000 every time it launches, increasing by $5,000,000 from the 2022 sum due to inflation.
This might seem like an eye watering amount of money at first glance, but seeing how much NASA spends in comparison will let you soon realize that this is a thrifty effort by Musk and his team.
NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) reportedly sets the government agency back around $2,000,000,000 every time it's used, which is just under 30 times more expensive than the SpaceX equivalent and looks even worse when you consider the cost-per-pound of $2,700 (SpaceX) compared to $70,000 (NASA).
One of the biggest reasons why SpaceX is able to reduce their costs so significantly is due to the reusable nature of Falcon 9.
The rocket's first stage booster has been specifically designed to land vertically, which makes it easy for the team to retrieve it and use it for future flights, significantly cutting down costs down the line.
While Falcon 9 is the current rocket of choice for SpaceX, their Starship project could cut down costs even more while also being their biggest and most powerful output.
The current launch cost of Starship is roughly $100,000,000 - which remains still a fraction of NASA's efforts - and Musk has claimed that this could drop as low as $10,000,000 in the future. Like Falcon 9, Starship is also reusable - although it has also been prone to explosions in recent launch tests.
You have to imagine that SpaceX's financially impressive launches are part of the reason why its been able to become the most valuable private company in the world, and it'll also play a key role in their ability to offer intern salaries that far exceed what NASA can table.