Cost per kilogram to orbit

Extracted Attributes

• Key Metric

  Spaceflight efficiency

• Influencing Factor

  Reusability of launch vehicles

• Soyuz-2 Cost (LEO)

  ~3,804 USD/kg

• Current Price Range to LEO

  8,000-100,000 USD/kg

• Air-launch-to-orbit Advantage

  Mitigates geographical and natural disaster risks

• China Long March 3B Cost (GTO)

  ~9,091 USD/kg

• Rocket Lab Electron Cost (LEO)

  25,000 USD/kg

• SpaceX Starship Target Cost (high reuse)

  10-20 USD/kg

• SpaceX Starship Target Cost (single use)

  150-600 USD/kg

• SpaceX Falcon Heavy Cost (max reusability)

  2,009-2,343 USD/kg

• Theoretical Minimum Energy Cost to LEO (100% efficiency)

  ~1.85 USD/kg

• SpaceX Starship Target Cost (5-6 reuses, 200 tons payload)

  ~93.66 USD/kg

• Current Average Price to LEO (past 20 years, institutional)

  15,000-20,000 USD/kg

Timeline

• Air launches of experimental aircraft began, laying roots for Air-launch-to-orbit (ALTO). (Source: Wikipedia)

  1940s late

• The first commercial air-launch-to-orbit was achieved with a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1990-04-05

• Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne, utilizing air-launch, won the Ansari X Prize for sub-orbital spaceflight. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2004

• SpaceX's Starship vehicle is being developed with the aim to revolutionize and drastically lower the cost per kilogram to orbit through full reusability. (Source: All-In Podcast, Web Search)

  Ongoing

Air-launch-to-orbit

Air-launch-to-orbit (ALTO) is the method of launching smaller rockets at altitude from a heavier conventional horizontal-takeoff aircraft, to carry satellites to low Earth orbit. It is a follow-on development of air launches of experimental aircraft that began in the late 1940s. This method, when employed for orbital payload insertion, presents significant advantages over conventional vertical rocket launches, particularly because of the reduced mass, thrust, cost of the rocket, geographical factors, and natural disasters. Air launching has also been developed for sub-orbital spaceflight. In 2004 the Ansari X Prize $10 Million purse was won by a team led by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, launching the SpaceShipOne from the purpose-built White Knight carrier aircraft. The first air-launch-to-orbit was a test launch of the ASM-135 ASAT antisatellite rocket, the first commercial air-launch-to-orbit took place on 5 April 1990 with a Northrop Grumman Pegasus.

Web Search Results

• SpaceX Starship Roadmap Lower Launch Costs by 100 Times

  Starship payload to orbit: 200 tons per launch Total payload for 6 launches: 200 tons × 6 = 1,200 ton The cost per kilogram to orbit using the SpaceX Starship under these conditions is approximately $93.66/kg even if payload is 180 tons it would still be $94. 5-6 full reuses would get the cost below $100/kg [...] A single use Super Heavy Starship and booster will be able to bring full payloads to orbit for about $250-600 per kilogram. This is with costs of about $90 million and reusable payloads of 200 tons and non-reusable payloads of 300-400 tons. Initial cost of Super Heavy booster and Starship: $90 million Fuel and maintenance cost per flight: $2 million Number of reusable flights: 6 Total cost for 6 flights: 90,000,000+(2,000,000×6)=102,000,000 Payload Capacity [...] For 6 Flights: With 200 tons payload: $93.66 per kg With 240 tons payload: $78 per kg For 20 Flights: With 200 tons payload: $32.50 per kg With 240 tons payload: $27.08 per kg For 50 Flights: With 200 tons payload: $19.00 per kg With 240 tons payload: $15.83 per kg For 70 Flights: With 200 tons payload: $16.43 per kg With 240 tons payload: $13.69 per kg It would be about 70 flights to get to costs per kilogram 100 times less (1% of the cost) of SpaceX Falcon Heavy.

• How Will SpaceX Bring the Cost to Space Down to $10 per Kilogram ...

  The energy investment necessary to put a kilogram into LEO is about 9.7kwh. That puts the energy cost to orbit, at 100% efficiency and no capitol costs, at about $1.85 per kg. Rockets are NOT terribly energy efficient, so they’re never going to approach that. But elevators supported by dynamic structures can. The Next Elon needs to start work on Sea Dragon. 500 tons to orbit—no turbopumps. 42 engines for 250 tons to LEO versus 2 engines for 500 [...] In a cost per kilogram of payload basis, a single use Super Heavy Starship can bring the cost down nearly ten times to about $150 per kilogram. However, high reuse of the Super Heavy Starship will bring the cost down to $10-20 per kilogram. [...] The steel used as the main construction material is about $5 per kilogram. The 300 tons for the Super Heavy Booster and the Starship would be $1.5 million for the steel. The main cost is the Raptor engines and the labor for each Starship. The other main cost are the avionics, electronics and heat shield tiles. The Raptor engines are at about $1 million each now. This is $39 million of the $90 million cost estimate.

• SPACE LAUNCH SERVICES PRICES - LinkedIn

  Introduction ------------ Launch services are notoriously an expensive segment of the space system, with actual prices paid by the customers ranging from 15 to 75k$ for every kilogram launched in orbit. These price differences are driven by many factors, including, but not only, the launcher design (large or small, reusable or expendable), the launch frequency (driven by the accessible demand), and the pricing structure of the market. [...] In average we note that the actual price paid by the customer will vary between 8 to 15k$/kg upwards to 70 to 100 k$/kg, with an average price for the past 20 years of 15 to 20k$/kg for launches to LEO and 25 to 30k$/kg for launches to GEO and other high energy orbits. Between 2012 and 2024 the average price of access to LEO for institutional customers was practically unchanged, sitting around 16k$/kg (Starlink not considered). [...] What is the real price paid launch a satellite to orbit? -------------------------------------------------------- In average we note that the actual price paid by the customer will vary between 8 to 15k$/kg upwards to 70 to 100 k$/kg, with an average price for the past 20 years of 15 to 20k$/kg for launches to LEO and 25 to 30k$/kg for launches to GEO and other high energy orbits.

• How Much Does It Cost to Launch a Rocket? [By Type & Size]

  Falcon Heavy can lift 64 metric tons to LEO when expended, but loses 30-40% of this capability when part of it is reused, according to Musk’s 2016 estimate. Exact prices and payloads vary according to how much of the rocket is expended, but with maximum reusability, 38.4 to 44.8 metric tons can be lifted to LEO for US $90 million. Prices to orbit are therefore US $2,343 – $2,009 / kg, but the markup value for Heavy remains obscure. The still-prototypical Starship, with the potential to launch [...] Small-lift vehicles are by far the most popular category of rockets. Obviously, their launch costs are lower than most heavier-lift variants, albeit with a higher cost per kilo to LEO (low Earth orbit), and offer customers more flexibility in their flight profiles. Rocket Lab’s US $7.5 million Electron is certainly cheap, lifting some 300 kg to LEO, but customers pay US $25,000 for a kilo to reach orbit. Depending on the mission and properties of the payload, however, such a dedicated launch [...] China’s expendable Long March 3B, for contrast, costs about US $50 million a launch, and usually shuttles its payload of up to 5,500 kg to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) for a ratio of about US $9,091/kg. Soyuz-2, Russia’s veteran rocket, costs US $35-80 million (depending on the provider) and can lift up to 9,200 kg to LEO. Its lowest possible ratio would therefore be about US $3,804/kg. ISRO’s medium-lift vehicles PSLV and GSLV cost US $21-31 million and US $47 million, can lift 3,250 kg

• Cost of space launches to low Earth orbit - Our World in Data

  Cost to launch one kilogram of payload mass to low Earth orbit as part of a dedicated launch.This data is adjusted for inflation. Select launches Settings 1962 2019 Datasource:CSIS Aerospace Security Project(2022) – Learn more about this data Note:Small vehicles carry up to 2,000 kg to low Earth orbit,medium ones between 2,000 and 20,000 kg,and heavy ones more than 20,000 kg.This data is expressed in constant 2021 US$. CC BY Data [...] Many of the cited sources directly provide cost-per-kilogram estimates for launches to LEO. Others require a simple calculation: dividing the total cost of a dedicated launch by the vehicle's payload capacity to LEO. In those cases, the reported cost-per-kilogram figure is calculated by the median total launch cost and the maximum payload capacity. [...] Data source: CSIS Aerospace Security Project (2022) – Learn more about this data Note: Small vehicles carry up to 2,000 kg to low Earth orbit, medium ones between 2,000 and 20,000 kg,and heavy ones more than 20,000 kg. This data is expressed in constant 2021 US$. OurWorldinData.org/space-exploration-satellites | CC BY Select launches --------------- Search for a launch Sort by: Launch cost per kilogram of payload, 2019 All launches