In brief
Elon Musk said the cost of sending one kilogram to orbit could drop below $100 in the future thanks to the reusability of SpaceX’s Starship. Current launch costs are around $18,400 per kilogram for a first‑orbit ride, and SpaceX plans to launch Starship every hour and deliver billions of tons annually. Starship Flight 15 is targeted for November 13.
Elon Musk told reporters that the cost of delivering one kilogram of cargo to orbit could fall under $100, a claim reported by TASS in a 2014 interview. The entrepreneur believes SpaceX’s fully reusable Starship platform will drive the price reduction.
"I think we get to under $100 a kilogram to orbit," Musk said in an interview with entrepreneur Ron Baron.
Musk explained that the Falcon 9 launch vehicle already achieves about 80 % reusability, with the booster landing and being reused. He noted that the cost of the upper stage is comparable to that of a medium‑sized jet, making the minimum cost per Falcon 9 flight similar to that medium‑sized jet cost.
He said Starship’s entire system is designed for reusability, such that the Super‑Heavy booster could launch an orbit‑raising stage every hour. SpaceX plans to deliver up to 10 million tonnes of cargo to orbit per year with the system.
Current launch costs, according to a recent analysis on Max Polyakov’s site, are about $18,400 per kilogram for a first‑orbit flight, and roughly $30,200 for subsequent orbits. This high figure underscores Musk’s point that a dramatic price decline is needed for mass market space services.
SpaceX is targeting November 13 for Starship Flight 15, the first attempt at catching the upper stage at a tower. The event is being monitored by several outlets, including Teslarati, which noted the launch date but said SpaceX had not yet officially confirmed it.
The upcoming Starship flight, if successful, could serve as the next step toward Musk’s cost‑reduction vision, and will likely draw interest from both industry observers and the public on PulseWire’s live coverage feeds.
