A Case Study in NASA-DoD - The Black Vault

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Third, the program costs are very sensitive to the maximum number
of payloads flown per spacecraft. An increase from 6 to 13 in the maximum
number of payloads per spacecraft would result in about a 30 percent
lower program cost; the major portion of this savings occurs by increasing
the maximum number of payloads to 10. An analysis of this potential
should be undertaken.
Fourth, launch costs, as determined by a variety of formulas, generally
did not affect the preferred procurement option, although they
substantially change the total program costs. The modified NASA shuttle
tariff rate structure considered during the second phase of the case
study corrects the drastic cost imbalance that the original NASA tariff
imposed on Air Force launches from the Western Test Range. Secondary
payload status, an underlying assumption for the Air Force's Space Test
Program, is not yet accounted for in any of the NASA tariff rate structures
for the shuttle. Incorporation of the concept of a secondary payload
could reduce the total program costs presented in this dissertation,
but it probably would not affect the spacecraft procurement decision.