SCP-2624 — SCP-2624 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-2624 Keter ~ medium confidence

SCP-2624

Expected annual

$30.2M

One-time setup

$1.1B

Annual recurring

$23.4M

Personnel

One-time startup and extreme contingency costs dominate the budget (notably a potential retrieval/capture program). Annual operating costs are driven by legal/cover operations, continuous monitoring/surveillance, and production/PR efforts.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $1.1B

Retrieval Capture Program $1.0B

[#18] One-time engineering, development and launch program cost estimate for a physical retrieval/capture program (low-probability, high-cost contingency).

Equipment $57.0M

[#1, #2, #3, #9] Sensor upgrades and processing hardware (#1), dedicated microsat/sensor hardware (#2), rendering farm and production hardware (#3), cyber/takedown systems setup (#9).

Space Based Sensors $40.0M

[#2] One-time purchase/launch/contracting cost for a small optical/IR microsat constellation or dedicated space-based sensors (chosen middling scale).

Damage Reserve $10.0M

[#13] One-time reserve fund for satellite replacement/repair and hush payouts tied to debris impacts.

Facilities $8.0M

[#3, #4, #17] Studio soundstage/physical VFX construction, regional ground-station/site installations, and hardened archival facility build-out (portion of VFX one-time and ground station construction costs allocated here).

Amnestic Development $5.0M

[#7] One-time R&D and regulatory/setup costs for targeted amnestic development and stockpiling.

Legal Reserve $5.0M

[#11] One-time litigation/settlement reserve to cover large legal exposures or exclusive footage purchases.

Initial Research And Lab Setup $2.0M

[#12] Lab & compute cluster and specialized instrumentation for biology/astrophysics research on SCP-2624.

Adverse Event Reserve $2.0M

[#8] One-time reserve fund allocation for serious adverse medical/legal contingencies.

Liaison Setup $500K

[#5] One-time negotiation/setup and legal contracting costs to establish covert agreements with agencies and launch providers.

Cyber Setup $500K

[#9] One-time setup of takedown contracts, monitoring systems, and vendor onboarding.

Data Archive $500K

[#17] Hardened archival storage hardware and write-once forensic logging systems for alternate recordings.

Pr Campaign Setup $200K

[#10] One-time creation of initial cover-story campaign assets and outreach materials.

Vetting Setup $200K

[#16] One-time setup of background-check infrastructure and initial vetting program.

Interview Mobile Kits $150K

[#6] One-time purchase of mobile interview/medical kits and initial interviewer training materials.

Rapid Response Kit $150K

[#15] One-time secure communications kit and on-call coordination tooling to support rapid covert NOTAM/advisories.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $23.4M/yr

Cover Story And Legal $6.5M/yr

[#5, #10, #11] Recurring liaison/covert contract budgets, PR/outreach spend to normalize events as 'space debris', and legal retainers/retainer fees.

Staff Wages $3.9M/yr

[#3, #6, #7, #16] Ongoing wages for VFX/production staff, interviewers/field teams, medical staff involved in amnestic administration and monitoring, and recurring vetting/training payroll.

Research And Monitoring $3.3M/yr

[#1, #12, #19] Recurring operations for orbital tracking/sensor ops, research payroll and experiments, and tourist/passenger monitoring integration.

Mission Alternate Production $2.5M/yr

[#3, #14] Per-mission production budgets for mission-specific alternate recordings (assumed mission tempo; production, actors, CGI).

Facilities Maintenance $1.5M/yr

[#4, #20] Maintenance, bandwidth/lease costs, power and overhead for ground stations, data centers and operational offices.

Space Based Sensors $1.5M/yr

[#2] Recurring operations, telemetry bandwidth and ground-station support for space-based sensors/microsats.

Supplies And Consumables $1.4M/yr

[#6, #7, #8] Per-interview operational costs (travel/admin), recurring amnestic drug supply and administration costs, medical follow-up and adverse-event care.

Cyber Ops $1.0M/yr

[#9] Recurring cyber monitoring, takedown service retainers, and legal takedown operations.

Insurance Replenishment $1.0M/yr

[#13] Annual replenishment/contribution to debris impact insurance and replacement fund.

Logistics And Transport $300K/yr

[#15] On-call advisory staffing travel, covert coordination costs, and rapid-response logistics.

Tourist Monitoring $300K/yr

[#19] Recurring costs to track, coordinate with private tourism providers, and process returning passengers.

Data Storage $150K/yr

[#17] Recurring archival storage, audits, migrations and forensic integrity services for alternate recordings.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $23.4M/yr

88.5% probability / year

Normal year with ongoing monitoring, production readiness, interviews, and legal/PR operations but no major incidents.

routine_surveillance steady_mission_tempo no_public_breach

🚨 Minor Incident $28.4M/yr

8.0% probability / year +$5.0M vs baseline

A public-facing mission is visibly interfered with, requiring emergency alternate-video substitution, increased PR/spend, ad-hoc amnestic usage and moderate legal response.

live_mission_interference localized_media_exposure small_scale_legal_action

🚨 Major Breach $73.3M/yr

3.0% probability / year +$50.0M vs baseline

An ejection causes measurable damage to civilian or Foundation satellites or a visible multi-platform media leak requiring large settlements and insurance payouts.

satellite_damage widespread_media_coverage litigation_and_settlements

🚨 Retrieval Attempt $1.0B/yr

0.5% probability / year +$1.0B vs baseline

Leadership authorizes a physical retrieval/capture program, triggering a major engineering and launch program.

executive_directive attempt_to_capture_or_deorbit

👥 Personnel 39 total

Role	Count	Notes
Research Scientist	6	[#12] Astrophysicists/biologists/modelers assigned to study composition, ejection physics and anomalous behavior.
Security Officer / MTF Agent	8	[#15, #20] On-call and coordination staff for covert advisories, mission security and asset protection.
Research Technician / Lab Tech	6	[#12, #17] Lab techs for sample analysis, instrumentation maintenance and archival handling.
Cyber Ops / IT	3	[#9, #17] Digital monitoring, takedown operations, forensic logging and archive integrity.
VFX Artists / Production Staff	8	[#3, #14] Production crew for alternate recording creation and standby mission substitutions.
Medical Officer / Psychologist	4	[#6, #7, #8] Interviewers, medical staff for amnestic administration and psychiatric follow-up.
Administrative Staff / Legal Liaison	4	[#5, #10, #11] Liaison officers, legal contract managers, PR coordinators and administrative support.

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst ranges are broad and the object is anomalous and behavior-dependent; line-item mappings are moderate-confidence but key drivers (frequency of live missions, decisions to attempt retrieval, and debris impact likelihood) are uncertain.

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