Cheapest Ride to Orbit: $/kg Ranking

Falcon Heavy hauls a kilo to orbit for ~$1,500; Rocket Lab's Electron charges ~$25,000 — and Starship promises under $100.

The top 3

  1. The reusable-rocket price crash: Landing and reflying boosters dropped the price to orbit roughly 20x below the Space Shuttle's ~$54,500/kg benchmark.
  2. Small rockets, giant per-kilo premium: A dedicated small-launcher seat can cost 8-10x more per kilogram than a Falcon ride — you're paying for control, not tonnage.
  3. Starship's bet and the business it protects: SpaceX is chasing sub-$100/kg — the wedge under a company reportedly valued around $350B.

Sources

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