In brief
Musk forecasts sub‑$100 per kilogram cost for orbital cargo using fully reusable Starship, citing Falcon 9 reuse and high launch frequency. Current launch prices hover around $18,400 per kilogram, so the proposed reduction could transform space commerce.
Elon Musk said SpaceX could send one kilogram of cargo into orbit for less than $100 in the future, a price that would cut the cost of spaceflight by more than a hundred‑fold.
Today a heavy‑lift launch costs roughly $18,400 per kilogram – the $18,400 figure comes from a recent analysis of launch pricing. That amount is based on the price of a single Falcon 9 rocket, and it represents the cost that most companies and scientists pay the day a payload reaches orbit.
Musk attributes the potential price cut to SpaceX’s reusable technology. According to him, the Falcon 9 booster is about 80 % reusable, and the booster returns to Earth for another flight. The upper stage, which is used only once, costs roughly what a medium‑sized private jet would cost to operate, so the minimum cost per Falcon 9 launch is still much lower than conventional rockets.
And he says the game‑changer will be the new Starship system, which is fully reusable. Musk predicts that the Super‑Heavy booster could launch every hour, and that SpaceX could move up to 10 million tonnes of cargo to orbit each year.
"I think we get to under $100 a kilogram to orbit," he said in an interview with entrepreneur Ron Baron, a quote reported by TASS. "It would work if the whole system is reusable and we launch at high frequency."
The shift to a reusable launch vehicle would make orbital transport almost as common as air travel, Musk added, suggesting that if every flight required a brand‑new rocket, the economics of the industry would be unsustainable.
