Dr. Claire Leon Photo credit: U.S. Air Force

PARIS — The U.S. Air Force appeared to buttress SpaceX’s claim that it charges more for U.S. government launches than for commercial missions not just because it can, but because government customers demand more than commercial customers for each launch.

SpaceX’s price to the U.S. government appear to be rising. In a rare apples-to-apples comparison, SpaceX won an Air Force contract to launch a GPS-3 positioning, timing and navigation satellite into medium-Earth orbit in 2019. SpaceX’s winning bid of $96.5 . . .

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