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As a student of economics and finance I would love to learn more about the cost structures of sending a payload into orbit.

More specifically -

  • What is the cost-per-pound to send something into LEO for the handful of operating private and public space programs?
  • How has the cost-per-pound to orbit changed over the years?

UPDATE: Has anyone come across newer costs?

Stu
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1 Answers1

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The cost depends on the rocket, and on the percent capacity of said rocket, but here's a few numbers for you, cost in U.S. dollars/kg to LEO (Wikipedia*). It should be noted that not all rocket prices are publicly available, in fact, most aren't.

  • Falcon Heavy: \$2200
  • Falcon 9 v 1.1- \$4,109
  • DNEPR- \$3,784
  • Ariane 5- \$10,476
  • Delta IV- \$13,072
  • Atlas V- \$13,182

* Cost per kg to LEO column has since been removed from linked to Wikipedia page. Here is a link to the latest archived version that still includes that column.

PearsonArtPhoto
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  • Is it merely a matter of company policy that price to LEO is often not public? Any idea? – Everyone Sep 16 '13 at 17:03
  • I don't believe these Falcon 9 numbers have ever been substantiated in the form of a contract. – AlanSE Sep 16 '13 at 17:10
  • One problem with this is there are a lot of variables in to this calculation, even "stock" rockets are custom designed for each mission. And not giving the price publicly allows them to play favorites. – PearsonArtPhoto Sep 16 '13 at 17:49
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    @AlanSE SpaceX is pretty much the only company that actually quotes a price publically. Beyond NASA they have dozens of launches booked. So some companies have clearly bought launches. CSA and Cassiope is a known discount case. But SES and Thiacom are next, surely they have signed a contract for those launches? – geoffc Sep 16 '13 at 18:58
  • I note the absence of a number for the Shuttle! Good choice, since of course the Shuttle numbers range from nonsensical ($500 mil/launch) to more reasonable ($1.5 billion) to the far extremes. Depends what you count. Same issue for Saturn V, and pretty much all NASA launchers. – geoffc Sep 16 '13 at 18:59
  • @geoffc: It's much easier to compare commercial launches. Government launches are very difficult to price... – PearsonArtPhoto Sep 16 '13 at 20:06
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    @geoffc: I know at least Orbcomm has a contract, ported at a discount. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1301/01orbcomm/ . The article indicates that it is due to a prior contract to launch their satellites on a Falcon 1, which was discontinued. – PearsonArtPhoto Sep 16 '13 at 20:09
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    Also, SES has one with no price listed, and Thaicomm has one, no price listed. At the least, the Falcon 9 prices are no higher than is listed on their website, thus I think the price is reasonable to be included. – PearsonArtPhoto Sep 16 '13 at 20:21
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    "Cost" and "price" are two different things. The numbers provided in this answer mix the two. – Erik Sep 17 '13 at 00:17
  • Also, it is probably reasonable to normalize these costs for system risk. A low price per pound sounds great until you realize it will take three launches to get to orbit... – Erik Jun 11 '15 at 04:01
  • If you think about all the contributors to launch cost and all the variables associated with a spacecraft launch, it's hard to imagine that a cost per kg could in most cases be anything better than a rough statistic. That SpaceX can actually quote a price (presumably for marketing purposes) seems to say a lot about both containing costs and controlling all the variables. – Anthony X Jun 14 '15 at 15:24
  • Falcon Heavy: $2200/kg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy#Pricing_and_development_funding – Victor Sergienko Oct 02 '15 at 15:59
  • No amount of money gets you a Falcon Heavy launch at present. – Russell Borogove Oct 03 '15 at 15:59
  • You can buy one, it just won't laugh for a while. – PearsonArtPhoto Oct 03 '15 at 16:48
  • Interesting how cost will change after success of spacex falcon 9 full thrust? – Eugene Krevenets Apr 09 '16 at 13:30
  • Full thrust? Not much. The reusable first stage will reduce the cost by about 30%, however. I suspect more for the Falcon Heavy. – PearsonArtPhoto Apr 09 '16 at 13:55
  • According to http://time.com/money/5135565/elon-musk-falcon-heavy-rocket-launch-cost/ the Falcon Heavy cost about $90M per launch and carries a (non-fuel) payload of about 140,000 lbs. On my calculator that's about $642.86/lb. – geowar Feb 08 '18 at 21:55
  • @geowar The number there is wrong. The cost is $90 million if the boosters are all preserved. The cost goes up if at the max capacity. – PearsonArtPhoto Feb 08 '18 at 22:02