Pricing a hosted payload

In an effort to reduce costs associated with space programs, the aerospace community has seen a recent surge in the interest in hosted payloads. In a commercially hosted payload scenario, an organization, such as a government agency, works with a commercial spacecraft provider to fly their payload on a commercial spacecraft. The hosted payload may comprise a small percentage of the total payload mass and power, or may comprise a relatively large portion of accommodation capacity, resulting in a “Condosat” arrangement. Hosted payload missions span short technology demonstrations to long duration operational systems. Because of the various circumstances that may exist for a hosted payload mission, there is no “one size fits all” approach to pricing. Therefore, it is important to recognize the expectations and considerations of all parties involved when negotiating a reasonable price for a hosted payload. This paper provides a qualitative discussion of the primary factors that affect the price of a hosted payload, and quantifies the relative impacts of some of the major variables. The paper explores three pricing models that may be used, using three hosted payload sample missions (communications payloads on a GEO Communications spacecraft) as test cases. The paper compares different price expectations of a hosted payload, depending on inputs and assumptions. Overall, the results show a range of prices that may be reasonable for a hosted payload on a GEO communications spacecraft, and the benefits and drawbacks of different types of models that may be used. The pricing models enable all parties to fully understand the variables that go into pricing hosted payloads for future missions.