Launch Cost per Kilogram
At SpaceX's list prices, launching a kilogram to low Earth orbit costs about $1,670 on a Falcon Heavy and $3,140 on a Falcon 9, in 2025 dollars. The Space Shuttle cost about $79,100 per kilogram, 25 times as much, and rockets first flown between 1970 and 2000 averaged about $23,900.
Data as of 16 October 2026 · Published launch prices, Jones (NASA, 2018) for older rockets, US consumer prices (BLS) for 2025 dollars · Updated when launch providers publish new prices. Methods
- Falcon Heavy
- $1,670
- per kg, 2022 list price
- Falcon 9
- $3,140
- per kg, 2024 list price
- Saturn V
- $6,670
- per kg
- Space Shuttle
- $79,100
- per kg
Rockets with a published price
Cost per kilogram in 2025 dollars, and the price of one launch as its provider published it. Falcon 9's $69.75 million covers missions of up to 5.5 tonnes to geostationary transfer orbit; government missions with extra requirements usually cost more than these commercial prices.
The cost per kilogram over time
Each dot is a rocket at the year it first flew. Red dots are published prices; grey dots come from the compilation in Jones (NASA, 2018). The scale is logarithmic: each gridline is ten times the one below. A Space Shuttle flight cost about $2.18 billion counting the whole program over its 135 flights, while a Saturn V cost about $933 million per launch but carried so much that its cost per kilogram was among the lowest of its time. Reusable first stages, fixed commercial prices and high launch rates brought the cost down further.
Cost per kilogram to low Earth orbit, 2025 dollars
By first flight year. Log scale.
Every rocket, cheapest per kilogram first
| Rocket | First flight | Per kg to LEO | Per launch | As published | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Falcon Heavy | 2018 | $1,670 | $107 million | $97 million (2022 list price) | CNBC |
| Falcon 9 Block 5 | 2018 | $3,140 | $71.6 million | $69.75 million (2024 list price) | SpaceX |
| Proton | 1965 | $5,260 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Wertz and Larson, 1996 | ||
| Zenit 2 | 1985 | $5,640 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Dnepr | 1999 | $6,280 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Saturn V | 1967 | $6,670 | $933 million | $728 million (2018 dollars) | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Williams, 2016 |
| Long March 3B | 1996 | $8,080 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Soyuz | 1966 | $9,740 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Zenit 3SL | 1999 | $9,740 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Long March 2E | 1990 | $9,870 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Wertz and Larson, 1996 | ||
| Long March 2C | 1982 | $12,800 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Vega | 2012 | $12,800 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Wikipedia, Comparison, 2018 | ||
| Rockot | 1994 | $13,300 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Titan-Centaur | 1974 | $14,400 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Koelle, 1991 | ||
| Delta III | 1998 | $15,000 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Koelle, 1991 | ||
| Cosmos | 1967 | $15,900 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Atlas V 401 | 2002 | $16,200 | $146 million | $109 million (2016 list price) | Defense Daily |
| Ariane 5G | 1996 | $16,800 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Firefly Alpha | 2021 | $18,700 | $18.7 million | $15 million (2020 quoted price) | CNBC |
| Delta II | 1989 | $19,600 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Athena 2 | 1998 | $21,300 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Start | 1993 | $21,400 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Saturn IB | 1966 | $22,200 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Koelle, 1991 | ||
| Ariane 44 | 1988 | $22,900 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Wertz and Larson, 1996 | ||
| Atlas IIA | 1992 | $25,400 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Wertz and Larson, 1996 | ||
| Taurus | 1989 | $26,200 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Wertz and Larson, 1996 | ||
| Electron | 2017 | $31,500 | $9.44 million | $7.5 million (2019 list price) | TechCrunch |
| Titan IV | 1989 | $31,700 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Wertz and Larson, 1996 | ||
| H-2 | 1994 | $33,800 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Wertz and Larson, 1996 | ||
| Atlas-Centaur | 1963 | $35,900 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Koelle, 1991 | ||
| Delta 3910 | 1980 | $35,900 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Koelle, 1991 | ||
| Titan II | 1962 | $39,700 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Wertz and Larson, 1996 | ||
| Athena 1 | 1995 | $40,600 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Wertz and Larson, 1996 | ||
| Pegasus XL | 1994 | $55,800 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Futron, 2002 | ||
| Space Shuttle | 1981 | $79,100 | $2.18 billion | $1.697 billion (2018 dollars) | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Pielke and Byerly, 2011 |
| Scout | 1960 | $143,000 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Koelle, 1991 | ||
| Delta E | 1965 | $215,000 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Koelle, 1991 | ||
| Vanguard | 1957 | $1,150,000 | Jones (NASA, 2018), citing Koelle, 1991 |
How the figures are made
Cost per kilogram is the price of one launch divided by the most the rocket can carry to low Earth orbit, the convention used by NASA's Jones (2018) and CSIS. For a rocket with a published price, the capacity is the payload to LEO shown in the Rocket Encyclopedia, which for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy is the fully expendable figure, although the list prices assume a recovered booster. Real missions rarely fill a rocket, so the cost of a particular satellite's ride is usually higher per kilogram.
Older rockets come from Table A1 of Jones (2018), which compiles earlier sources (Koelle 1991, Wertz and Larson 1996, Futron 2002 and others) in 2018 dollars; Saturn V and the Space Shuttle are his own calculations. Every figure is converted to 2025 dollars with the US consumer price index (CPI-U). Prices that are only targets, such as Starship's, H3's or Ariane 6's, are left out until real prices are published.