Background to the Spacecraft Industry Mission Costs and Reliability Spacecraft production and operation are very expensive with typical program costs amounting to hundreds of millions of pounds. The main driving factor is the cost of spacecraft launch.
Launchers are extremely expensive to build and use.
A guided rocket, capable of delivering a spacecraft into orbit is an extremely large, complex, multi-stage device, subject to an extreme range of temperatures and burning highly corrosive and hazardous fuels. Guidance is complex, the launcher providing huge amounts of thrust in one axis, while also controlling the other axes to direct the rocket into the correct orbit. Launch opportunities are often limited by season or by the need to clear the vicinity of the rocket launch site and flight path. Launchers must be designed to be as highly reliable as possible. In the event of failure, even if another spare spacecraft exists, another launch opportunity may not exist for months or years.