> The whole Falcon 9 program didn't even cost 400 million $ to develop initially. The Falcon 9 first flew in 2010. US govt CPI measure over the period 2008 (pi

> The whole Falcon 9 program didn't even cost 400 million $ to develop initially. The Falcon 9 first flew in 2010. US govt CPI measure over the period 2008 (picking a development start time at random) to 2024 is ~45 percent. I've not idea if this explains it all, but it certainly explains a chunk of it.