How much money does Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship program cost?
SpaceX has pumped vast sums of money into developing the Starship rocket system. Once operational though it will drastically cut the cost of space travel.
SpaceX revolutionized sending rockets into space with its reusable booster modules. Its Falcon 9 platform is now the cheapest per kilo of payload.
However, if the company started by Elon Musk is successful at getting its Starship rocket system functional and operational it would drastically slash the cost of travelling into orbit and beyond. On Saturday, SpaceX will be making another go of it with a second test launch from its Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.
How much money does Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship program cost?
Begun in 2012, Musk has estimated that the Starship program will cost between $5 billion and $10 billion to develop. In 2023 SpaceX planned to pump some $2 billion into rocket system in an effort to finally get Starship into orbit for the first time.
The first attempt in April 2023 ended in a “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly” over the Gulf of Mexico roughly four minutes after liftoff. Technical problems forced the launch team to activate the flight termination system resulting in a massive fireball. In November 2023 a second attempt was made and more information was gathered after a successful liftoff although the the vehicle caught fire and was lost at the end of the second stage
However, the first Starship flight managed to achieve several milestones and the company learned valuable lessons even in failure on the first and second attempt. While Musk wasn’t completely confident that the Starship would get into orbit in 2024 putting the odds at 80 percent, he puts them at 100 percent in the first half of 2024 and was successful on March 14, 2024 on the third attempt.
Starship program will radically reduce price of space travel
The cost of putting material and people into space is considerably cheaper today than at the start of the space race. However, it is still prohibitively expensive for a wider expansion of developing industries in space or sending anyone other than the wealthiest individuals and astronauts into orbit.
The SpaceX Starship could radically change that though if the program is successful and can be scaled up. The company’s Falcon 9 rockets cost around $62 million to carry a payload of around 25,000 kilograms (55,000 lbs.).
That is about a sixth of the potential maximum 150 metric ton payload of Starship. Musk estimates that it would cost as little as $10 million per launch within a few years. Currently each launch costs about $100 million, but that is still 40 percent less per kilogram than the Falcon 9 given the higher volume available on board the Starship rocket system.