Great Power Industry: You're a private company building an aircraft carrier?

After all that fuss and making so many grand promises, we've finally gotten back to where we started.

At the time, Qin Chuan only planned to develop a rocket to achieve low-cost access to space; starships and such were just projects that later became PowerPoint presentations.

William Gerstämmerer continued, "Commercial launches? How do you plan to make money?"

"Let's first calculate the commercial launch costs of various countries around the world. The most common space shuttle in the United States has a payload of 22.7 tons and a single launch cost of $4.5 million. This translates to a launch cost of $19824 per kilogram. When the United States developed the space shuttle, it originally wanted to reuse it to reduce costs. Unfortunately, NASA did not have the ability to do so, and it was instead set at a record high price."

The Americans all lowered their heads; they knew that President Qin was right.

"The latest model developed by the European Space Agency is the Ariane 5, with a payload of 16 tons and a single launch cost of $1.65 million, or $10313 per kilogram. This proves that Western costs remain high."

Everyone continued to nod.

"The Soyuz spacecraft has a payload of 6.9 tons and costs $50 million per launch, which translates to $7246 per kilogram... In short, our calculations show that no commercial launch in any country around the world costs less than $5,000 per kilogram of payload, except for India, of course."

India's technology is indeed cheap. Take their polar-orbiting satellite launch vehicle, for example: it has a payload of 3.8 tons and a launch price of $1500 million, which is equivalent to $3947 per kilogram. That's cheap, but can Indian technology be considered reliable? It often explodes, and its orbital accuracy after launch is poor!

"If we want to attract high investment, we need to show people that we can make money from commercial launches. So, before Starship, we need to build a two-stage rocket, about four meters in diameter and seventy meters in length. Both the first and second stages will use our liquid oxygen-methane engines, and the number will be selected as needed. The payload capacity to low Earth orbit is twenty-three tons."

Currently, China's Long March 2 rocket has a low Earth orbit carrying capacity of only ten tons, which is far from meeting future needs. For example, the launch of a space station requires a single module weighing around twenty tons, which the Long March 2 rocket cannot handle, so the Long March 5 rocket will have to be used.

If our own rocket is developed first, we can make up for the shortcomings.

Moreover, the twenty-odd tons are for future manned spacecraft!

"We plan to control the cost of a single launch of this rocket to around 60 million US dollars, which will reduce the payload per kilogram to 2,000 to 3,000 US dollars. Moreover, this is the cost of a single use. Our rocket is reusable and is expected to be used 20 to 30 times. You should be able to calculate the launch cost of this, right?"

Everyone's eyes widened.

"Let me explain. Our launch cost per kilogram will be less than one thousand dollars. While countries around the world think that space travel is a money-burning business, we can make it a low-cost, profitable business!"

"That's right, you're absolutely right!"

Hearing William Gerstämmerl's words, Qin Chuan finally breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, no one objected. It seemed that although these people longed to fly to Mars, they also knew that they had to be down-to-earth. They could talk about the Starship satellite later, and this small rocket project could first verify the recovery and other related technologies. It would not only make money, but also tell everyone that Starship Company was going to Mars with its feet firmly on the ground!

"Excuse me, why is the launch weight limited to around twenty-three tons?" Cubanov asked.

This indicator sounds unusual because he felt it was unnecessary to make it so large. Space launches depend on user needs. If you have enough thrust but the user can't use it, it's a waste. The RD-170 engine is an example of this.

"That's right," Qin Chuan explained. "We need to verify both the rocket recovery technology and various spacecraft technologies. Therefore, before building the starship, we also need to build a small manned spacecraft. We designed this spacecraft to weigh around 23 tons."

The Soyuz spacecraft weighs only seven or eight tons, and the Shenzhou spacecraft in the East weighs less than ten tons. The twenty-three tons that Qin Chuan mentioned is almost the same weight as the Space Shuttle, yet it is still called a small manned spacecraft!

Of course, it is indeed not very big compared to a starship.

"This spacecraft can carry seven astronauts, three staff members, and still have four seats available. We can sell these seats, and I think each seat could fetch around 15 million US dollars."

Everyone's eyes widened.

A ticket to Mars costs $1.5 million, but just to get to Earth, a single seat costs $15 million.

“That’s right, absolutely! Last year, a Soyuz rocket carried American millionaire Dennis Tillerson, who asked for a ticket worth twenty million dollars,” Cubanov said.

“Once the US space shuttle is retired, if people want to go to space, they will have to lease the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. At that time, they will ask for an exorbitant price, no less than 50 million US dollars per seat!” William Gerstmeier added.

The reason why flights to Mars are cheap is because spacecraft have a large number of seats, and the price has decreased as the technology has matured. Now, the price of a ticket to leave Earth is the same.

Selling four seats would bring in $60 million, even with competition from other companies. And seat prices will continue to rise! This is a profitable business!

Laiyang Group will not invest too much capital. Once the project starts, Starship Company will be able to be self-sufficient. In the global aerospace industry, this is almost impossible, but in the East, anything is possible!

First, develop a rocket and spaceship that can generate revenue, and at the same time verify the technology. Once the technology is mature, the construction of the starship can continue!

No one objected to this plan, but some people still didn't understand it.

"Is a 23-ton spacecraft a one-time use item? If so, the launch cost must be quite high."

"Of course not, our spacecraft is also reusable." Qin Chuan explained, "Our spacecraft adopts a two-section structure. The front part is the space capsule, which is about 4 meters in diameter and 8 meters in height. It has a conical structure. Normally, seven astronauts live and work inside. It can meet their needs for a week of independent flight. This part needs to be completely recovered. Anything valuable is put here!"

"There is a service module behind it, which provides various support services. This module will eventually burn up in the atmosphere."

Modern spacecraft are all disposable because there are too few reusable parts. When they go up, they are in three sections, or even have an additional module. When they return, only the small return capsule in the middle is left, and the rest is thrown into space.

There's no need to reuse this last remaining section, since it doesn't cost much.

Subsequent spacecraft, which were designed to be reusable, required the majority of the cargo to be recovered. As a result, they were all designed as two-section structures, with the front capsule being recovered as a whole, which significantly increased the weight.

The Shenzhou spacecraft from the East weighs less than ten tons, while the space capsule that Qin Chuan is planning to return to weighs over ten tons.