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I know it's probably in the docs somewhere but I'm feeling lazy: how much does it cost SpaceX to launch a rocket? I'm sure there's some variation so a range or

I know it's probably in the docs somewhere but I'm feeling lazy: how much does it cost SpaceX to launch a rocket? I'm sure there's some variation so a range or average will suffice. Thanks. Edit: Turns out that was a bit of a silly question. Thanks for the replies.

mikeash 9y ago
They charge around $60 million for a commercial launch. I’m not sure how big their profit margins are, but that at least gives you a ballpark idea.
azernik 9y ago
That is closely guarded information. The customer price of a launch is in the $60M-$80M range, so that's an upper bound.
btilly 9y ago
SpaceX doesn't publish their costs. But http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities says that they will let you launch 50k pounds of stuff into orbit for $62 million. Their BFR system is aiming to launch more weight at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars per launch. But they need to find customers to recoup several billion in development costs on it.
- DiThi 9y ago
  > at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars per launch They only stated publicly that will cost "less than Falcon 1" per launch. That means less than ~$6 million. The few hundred thousand dollars figure is the cost of the fuel, which will become the main cost after full reusability is achieved.
mLuby 9y ago
Off the top of my head I'd guess it's $30M for the rocket launch itself: - SpaceX charges $60M per launch. - Elon said fuel is $200k-$300k when explaining the value of reusability. - majority of cost is probably engine, followed by fairing, which Elon has said is expensive enough to want to reuse. Keep in mind that there're a lot of operational and R&D expenses, and the launches have to cover that too, so I assume a healthy margin on each launch.
- londons_explore 9y ago
  Majority of the cost is probably operational and R&D costs. A F9 rocket is 14 tons of mostly aluminium alloys. The materials aren't a big fraction of the costs. Manufacturing is very expensive, but due to the accuracy, repeatability and size of parts needed, the vast majority of the work is semi-automated. It's the tooling and design thats expensive, not each individual rocket.
  - mLuby 9y ago
    Wouldn't that suggest that the first rocket in a line, say the F9, would be very expensive, and subsequent F9s would be close to the cost of the raw inputs?

mikeash 9y ago

They charge around $60 million for a commercial launch. I’m not sure how big their profit margins are, but that at least gives you a ballpark idea.

azernik 9y ago

That is closely guarded information. The customer price of a launch is in the $60M-$80M range, so that's an upper bound.

btilly 9y ago

SpaceX doesn't publish their costs. But http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities says that they will let you launch 50k pounds of stuff into orbit for $62 million. Their BFR system is aiming to launch more weight at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars per launch. But they need to find customers to recoup several billion in development costs on it.

DiThi 9y ago
> at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars per launch They only stated publicly that will cost "less than Falcon 1" per launch. That means less than ~$6 million. The few hundred thousand dollars figure is the cost of the fuel, which will become the main cost after full reusability is achieved.

mLuby 9y ago

Off the top of my head I'd guess it's $30M for the rocket launch itself: - SpaceX charges $60M per launch. - Elon said fuel is $200k-$300k when explaining the value of reusability. - majority of cost is probably engine, followed by fairing, which Elon has said is expensive enough to want to reuse. Keep in mind that there're a lot of operational and R&D expenses, and the launches have to cover that too, so I assume a healthy margin on each launch.

londons_explore 9y ago
Majority of the cost is probably operational and R&D costs. A F9 rocket is 14 tons of mostly aluminium alloys. The materials aren't a big fraction of the costs. Manufacturing is very expensive, but due to the accuracy, repeatability and size of parts needed, the vast majority of the work is semi-automated. It's the tooling and design thats expensive, not each individual rocket.
- mLuby 9y ago
  Wouldn't that suggest that the first rocket in a line, say the F9, would be very expensive, and subsequent F9s would be close to the cost of the raw inputs?