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SpaceX is charging 1 megabuck for a 200 kg payload, (5 kUSD/kg). That's still cheap enough that for bespoke spacecraft the launch is still much less expensive
by brandmeyer 5y ago
SpaceX is charging 1 megabuck for a 200 kg payload, (5 kUSD/kg). That's still cheap enough that for bespoke spacecraft the launch is still much less expensive than the satellite.
What is the basis for your < 1kUSD/kg estimate?
- Retric 5y agoCosts go up for smaller payloads as your paying for more than just weight. As a sanity check a Falcon gets 22,800kg (expendable) and 16,800 (reusable) to LEO. At 5k/kg that would be 84M reusable, apparently they’re charging ~85M for a reusable falcon Heavy launch and Falcon 9 is much cheaper. Actual prices aren’t disclosed but the internal price are quoted at as ~40M new and under 15M refurbished, with 10 total launches per rocket. Assuming the last launch isn’t reusable by design that’s (40M+ 9 * 15M ) ~= 175M to get (16,800 kg * 9 + 22,800kg) = 174,000kg to LEO. That’s under 1k/kg, though I have seen 951$/kg quoted in terms of StarLink’s costs. Clearly they charge customers more, but not 5k/kg more.
- brandmeyer 5y agoSmallsat retail launch prices on Falcon 9 are published. Even if SpaceX is making money hand-over-fist at that price, they are still the cheapest ride in the business. https://www.spacex.com/rideshare/ https://www.spacex.com/rideshare/ ~~disclaimer~~ ~~disclosure~~ excited bragging: my strtup is launching a payload on next week's transporter mission. We payed full retail and have no regrets.
- Retric 5y agoCool, though they also charge 5k/lb into polar orbits which have significantly lower capacity. Falcon 9 is 16,800kg to LEO but only 9,600kg to a polar orbit. Anyway, clearly larger satellites are much cheaper in terms of cost to LEO, but it’s still a useful datapoint.