Russia accuses Elon Musk of waging price war in space

The head of Russia’s space agency has accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of predatory pricing for launches.

Elon Musk at the Satellite 2020 in Washington in March. Picture: AFP

The head of Russia’s space agency has accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of predatory pricing for launches, which is pushing Russia to cut its own prices.

“Instead of honest competition on the market for space launches, they are lobbying for sanctions against us and use price dumping with impunity,” Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin tweeted on Saturday.

The outspoken Mr Rogozin, who has previously engaged in online banter with Mr Musk, on Friday raised the issue during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

He said the Roscosmos space agency “is working to lower prices by more than 30 per cent on launch services to increase our share on the international markets”. “This is our answer to dumping by American companies financed by the US budget,” he said.

The market price of a SpaceX launch is $US60m, but NASA pays up to four times that amount, he said.

Mr Musk responded to the criticism on Saturday by saying on Twitter: “SpaceX rockets are 80% reusable, theirs are 0%. This is the actual problem.”

SpaceX plans to send astronauts to the International Space Station next month for the first time on board its Falcon 9, a rocket that can be reused, lowering the cost of missions.

Mr Musk also announced last month that SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsules will start transporting tourists to the ISS next year.

Mr Rogozin has claimed, however, that SpaceX’s low pricing is possible due only to lavish funding from the Pentagon.

After NASA retired its space shuttles in 2011, Russia became the sole carrier of people to space, charging NASA for launching US astronauts to the ISS at reportedly $US70m each.

In 2014, Mr Rogozin mocked the lack of a US manned flight program, saying it might as well “deliver its astronauts to the ISS by using a trampoline”, after Washington announced new sanctions against Moscow, which included some space industries.

AFP