Chapter 934 - Future Direction (1/2)

Lease the port?

Musk’s proposal somewhat surprised Jiang Chen.

In Celestial Trade’s internal discussion about the profitability model of the space elevator, there was indeed options to lease the port at Celestial City.

Since it was a one-man market, the scale was limited. Rather than sharing one cake alone, it was better to make the cake bigger with everyone, and then be the person cutting the cake. Only when everyone participated in the giant market could Celestial Trade maximize its profit while avoiding unnecessary conflicts.

Imagine this, the entire world’s development of space resources must be done through the space elevator in Xin. All the freights must stop at the base station underneath the space elevator. All the resources from outer space must be transported from Xin’s port to the rest of the world. What would this mean to Xin’s economy, currency, and international standing?

Competition? Of course there would be competition.

But if Celestial Trade couldn’t out compete with SpaceX with a technology a century ahead, then Celestial Trade employees should just give up!

But what surprised Jiang Chen was that just after the space elevator’s completion, while Celestial City was just beginning to take its shape, and before the United Nations summit, Musk already thought much ahead. This indeed amazed Jiang Chen.

“What do you think? Are you interested?” Musk asked with a serious tone.

“I’m extremely interested… Or rather, I’m really surprised,” Jiang Chen said.

“Oh? Did I offend…”

“No, you’re misinterpreting me.” Jiang Chen shook his head, used his finger to move the hologram communication window from the left hand to the right hand side, then continued, “We do in fact have the intention to lease the port, but the specifics remain on paper. We can’t give you an answer now, but since you proposed this, once the United Nation summit is over and we determine a feasible plan, we’ll contact you immediately.”

With a joyous expression, Musk said passionately.

“Please!”

“Is there anything else?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Of course, there’s one more thing.” Musk smiled. “We originally planned to launch Falcon 9 at the beginning of February carrying 450 kilogram of supplies to the International Space Station. But by the looks of it now, we don’t need to waste sixty million?”

“You plan to contract NASA’s mission to us?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrow and asked with intrigue.

Musk snapped his finger and responded.

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”

…

The cost of transporting out and back would be different. Depending on the type of goods, there would be some differences on the type of transporter used and the acceleration process, naturally, the quote would be different. But in any case, the transportation cost of the space elevator was definitely much lower than that of rockets.

The standard price of the Falcon 9 was 60 million US Dollars. Even if the successful recovery of the first-stage rocket could save 80% of the launch cost (the probability of success is not high), it would come with a bill as large as 12 million US Dollars. Compared with 450 kilograms of goods, the transportation cost per kilogram was as high as 26,000 US Dollars.

The quotation of Celestial Trade, together with the spaceship and its 450 kilograms supply could be sent to the geosynchronous track for a total of only 2 million Xin New Dollars. Converted to US Dollars based on current exchange rates, it would be roughly 2.15 million.

Based on the UA subsidy policy for the aerospace industry, NASA paid about 61 million US Dollars to SpaceX. If it was outsourced to Celestial, it would be almost sixty times the profit!