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Cost per kilo to Low Earth Orbit (LEO): Space Shuttle: $19, 824 per kg [1] Soyuz-2: $5,333 per kg [2] Falcon 9: $5,167 per kg [3] At the moment, the F

Cost per kilo to Low Earth Orbit (LEO): Space Shuttle: $19, 824 per kg [1] Soyuz-2: $5,333 per kg [2] Falcon 9: $5,167 per kg [3] At the moment, the Falcon 9 is not that much cheaper than the Soyuz. Elon Musk's talk of $1,100 per kg lies in the future. SpaceX is hoping that making all the parts reusable and its new Falcon Heavy (Which will carry five times as much as the Falcon 9) will cause launch costs to plummet like a stone. Which is not to say SpaceX isn't amazing. It has been launching rockets for that past 6 years. Whereas Soyuz has been the 40 year work of a superpower. Achieving parity is a wonder in and of itself. [1] $450 million cost per launch / 22,700 kg payload http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/shuttle_faq.html#10 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/shuttl... [2] $40 million / 7,500 kg payload http://myblog.rsynnott.com/2010/03/rocket-fuel-not-as-expensive-as-youd.html http://myblog.rsynnott.com/2010/03/rocket-fuel-not-as-expens... [3] $54 million / 10,450 kg payload http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.php http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.php Edit: Grammar, formatting

tadfisher 14y ago
Not cost per kilo, price. These numbers aren't comparable as-is, you have to look at the cost structure.
- eupharis 14y ago
  This is cost in terms of "how much will it cost me to hire SpaceX or the Soyuz to take my tourist self / science experiment / mining robot to LEO." If you want to call that price, go for it. Obviously this is pure theorycraft for the Space Shuttle. But if anyone has a better number please share! $/kg is the crucial number that has to fall to bring about a new era in space exploration. Except for SpaceX, space launch companies don't publish their prices straight up on the website. But about $5,000 per kg ballpark figure for Soyuz seems widely to be accepted by credible sources on the internet and books. See: http://books.google.com/books?id=kN9Szy-fJVIC&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=kN9Szy-fJVIC&pg=PA69&#3... If someone has harder numbers for the Soyuz, please share!
  - InclinedPlane 14y ago
    "Obviously this is pure theorycraft for the Space Shuttle. But if anyone has a better number please share!" A moot point now, since the Shuttle isn't operational. However, when it was running the incremental cost to NASA was around $500 mil per launch, so roughly $20,500 per kg to LEO. Tallying the full cost per Shuttle launch (i.e. the cost to the tax payers over the full history of the program) runs to about $1.5 billion per launch, so adjust those numbers above up by a factor of 3.
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tadfisher 14y ago

Not cost per kilo, price. These numbers aren't comparable as-is, you have to look at the cost structure.

eupharis 14y ago
This is cost in terms of "how much will it cost me to hire SpaceX or the Soyuz to take my tourist self / science experiment / mining robot to LEO." If you want to call that price, go for it. Obviously this is pure theorycraft for the Space Shuttle. But if anyone has a better number please share! $/kg is the crucial number that has to fall to bring about a new era in space exploration. Except for SpaceX, space launch companies don't publish their prices straight up on the website. But about $5,000 per kg ballpark figure for Soyuz seems widely to be accepted by credible sources on the internet and books. See: http://books.google.com/books?id=kN9Szy-fJVIC&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=kN9Szy-fJVIC&pg=PA69&#3... If someone has harder numbers for the Soyuz, please share!
- InclinedPlane 14y ago
  "Obviously this is pure theorycraft for the Space Shuttle. But if anyone has a better number please share!" A moot point now, since the Shuttle isn't operational. However, when it was running the incremental cost to NASA was around $500 mil per launch, so roughly $20,500 per kg to LEO. Tallying the full cost per Shuttle launch (i.e. the cost to the tax payers over the full history of the program) runs to about $1.5 billion per launch, so adjust those numbers above up by a factor of 3.

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