What it costs to launch a satellite, and how the price has moved
Launch is the bottom layer of the orbital economy: every station, factory and data center in orbit pays it first. These are the prices launch companies have published themselves, read from their own pages and from archived copies, with the date each was on show.
A small satellite: SpaceX's rideshare booking tool quotes $350,000 for 50 kg to sun-synchronous orbit on flights from March 2027, which is $7,000 per kg (read November 1, 2026). In April 2025 the same 50 kg cost $325,000.
A whole rocket: the last Falcon 9 price SpaceX published was $69.85 million for up to 22,000 kg to low Earth orbit, about $3,175 per kg (May 2025).
The trend: in plain dollars SpaceX's prices have gone up since 2020. After inflation, a Falcon 9 costs about 10% less than in 2020 and a rideshare kilogram about the same. The big fall came earlier: NASA put the average Space Shuttle mission at $775 million in 2010.
Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy list prices
| On SpaceX's page | Price | Max to LEO | Per kg | Price, Sep 2026 dollars | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 27, 2020 to Mar 15, 2022 | $62 million | 22,800 kg | $2,719 | $81.48 million | Standard payment plan (2020 launch) |
| Mar 22, 2022 to Mar 31, 2023 | $67 million | 22,800 kg | $2,939 | $78.52 million | Raised March 2022, "excessive levels of inflation" |
| Jun 7, 2024 to Jul 25, 2024 | $69.75 million | 22,000 kg | $3,170 | $76.2 million | Raised January 2024 |
| May 11, 2025 | $69.85 million | 22,000 kg | $3,175 | $73.21 million | Last price published (through 2025) |
Source: SpaceX Capabilities & Services page, archived copies (each price links to its copy). The payload figure is SpaceX's maximum with the booster thrown away; reused boosters carry less. SpaceX cut the stated payload from 22,800 kg to 22,000 kg in 2023. The page has not been online since August 2025, so there is no newer list price.
- Falcon Heavy, May 27, 2020
- $90 million for up to 63,800 kg to LEO: $1,411 per kg (archived page). Dropped from the published price table in 2023.
- Falcon Heavy, Mar 22, 2022
- $97 million for up to 63,800 kg to LEO: $1,520 per kg (archived page). Dropped from the published price table in 2023.
Other small launchers
A dedicated small rocket costs more per kilogram than a rideshare seat, and buys a chosen orbit and launch date.
| Rocket | Price | What the number is | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firefly Alpha | $15 million | Dedicated launch price, up to 1,030 kg to LEO | Alpha payload user guide, 2019 |
| Firefly Alpha | $15 million | Dedicated launch price, up to 1,030 kg to LEO | Alpha payload user guide 5.0 |
| Firefly Alpha | $19 million | Dedicated launch price, up to 1,030 kg to LEO | Alpha payload user guide 5.2 |
| Rocket Lab Electron | $6.7 million | Average revenue per launch in 2022 (up to 300 kg to LEO) | Rocket Lab 10-K |
| Rocket Lab Electron | $7.1 million | Average revenue per launch in 2023 (up to 300 kg to LEO) | Rocket Lab 10-K |
| Rocket Lab Electron | $7.8 million | Average revenue per launch in 2024 (up to 300 kg to LEO) | Rocket Lab 10-K |
| Rocket Lab Electron | $8.5 million | Average revenue per launch in 2025 (up to 300 kg to LEO) | Rocket Lab 10-K |
Firefly's newest guide (5.3, September 2026) states no price. Rocket Lab publishes no list price; its 10-K reports what it earned per launch on average.
Where the price came from
NASA put the average cost to prepare and launch a Space Shuttle mission at about $775 million in fiscal 2010 ($1.2 billion in September 2026 dollars) (NASA, Space Shuttle Era Facts, 2011). A NASA Ames paper puts the shuttle at about $1.5 billion to launch 27,500 kg, or $54,500 per kg (H. Jones, NASA Ames, ICES-2018-81, 2018; an author's estimate, not an official NASA figure).
Against that, a Falcon 9 kilogram at $3,175 is about 17 times cheaper, and a rideshare kilogram at $7,000 about 8 times cheaper. Everything else on this site follows from that drop: capsules that bring products back, private space stations and computers in orbit. Google's Suncatcher paper models what computing in orbit would cost if launch fell to $200 per kg, 35 times below today's rideshare price.
Changes to this page
- Nov 1, 2026 · First published. SpaceX prices from archived copies of its pages, 2020-2025, plus today's rideshare estimate ($7,000 per kg, up from $6,500 in April 2025).
One layer, one week's numbers
Each issue takes one layer (launch, stations, manufacturing or compute) and shows what changed that week: new prices, new dates, missions flown, with the source for each.
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EJ, "What it costs to launch a satellite, and how the price has moved", Orbit Economics, updated Nov 1, 2026, https://orbiteconomics.com/cost-to-launch-a-satellite/
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page.