Comparative cost of launching payloads into space on different launch systems

[Guardian700]

Hello all lovers of astronautics. The table below is in great demand among the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. In the English-speaking segment, I did not find anything like this, so I decided to translate it.

https://aboutspacejornal.net/2017/09/21/comparative-cost-of-launching-payloads-into-space-on-different-launch-systems/

If you find errors or inaccuracies in the translation or numbers, write, I will correct

[SmallKing]

A insider once said in the Chinese forum that the cost of CZ5 would be slightly higher than one billion yuan(~150 million dollars)

[Guardian700]

A insider once said in the Chinese forum that the cost of CZ5 would be slightly higher than one billion yuan(~150 million dollars)

Done, thank you!

[ringsider]

Hello all lovers of astronautics. The table below is in great demand among the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. In the English-speaking segment, I did not find anything like this, so I decided to translate it.

https://aboutspacejornal.net/2017/09/21/comparative-cost-of-launching-payloads-into-space-on-different-launch-systems/

If you find errors or inaccuracies in the translation or numbers, write, I will correct

I don't think Vega is 5m dollars. More like $35m.

[Guardian700]

I don't think Vega is 5m dollars. More like $35m.

Done, many thanks! In the Russian version of Wikipedia was a mistake - fixed.

[SmallKing]

A lot of date was inaccurate I thought. The cost of Soyuz-2 is higher than Falcon9s, and the baseline of Atlas-5 is 109M

[SmallKing]

Here some old data for reference

[Guardian700]

A lot of date was inaccurate I thought. The cost of Soyuz-2 is higher than Falcon9s, and the baseline of Atlas-5 is 109M

I don't think that Soyuz-2 is more expensive than Falcon, but pay attention for what year prices. Where did the information about Atlas V?

[SmallKing]

A lot of date was inaccurate I thought. The cost of Soyuz-2 is higher than Falcon9s, and the baseline of Atlas-5 is 109M

I don't think that Soyuz-2 is more expensive than Falcon, but pay attention for what year prices. Where did the information about Atlas V?

https://www.rocketbuilder.com/start/configure

[SmallKing]

A lot of date was inaccurate I thought. The cost of Soyuz-2 is higher than Falcon9s, and the baseline of Atlas-5 is 109M

I don't think that Soyuz-2 is more expensive than Falcon, but pay attention for what year prices. Where did the information about Atlas V?

Five Soyuz rocket launches and associated services were valued at 397 million euros, according to the commission's contract announcement in January. The launch price was higher than Galileo officials expected, complicating the already-mounting budget trouble.

https://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1007/07galileo/

[Guardian700]

A lot of date was inaccurate I thought. The cost of Soyuz-2 is higher than Falcon9s, and the baseline of Atlas-5 is 109M

Five Soyuz rocket launches and associated services were valued at 397 million euros, according to the commission's contract announcement in January. The launch price was higher than Galileo officials expected, complicating the already-mounting budget trouble.

https://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1007/07galileo/

It's about Souz-ST 80 million. Launch from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. This is the Europeans are launching, for them is more expensive ...

[Guardian700]

A lot of date was inaccurate I thought. The cost of Soyuz-2 is higher than Falcon9s, and the baseline of Atlas-5 is 109M

I don't think that Soyuz-2 is more expensive than Falcon, but pay attention for what year prices. Where did the information about Atlas V?

https://www.rocketbuilder.com/start/configure

Depending on the modification

[Guardian700]

A lot of date was inaccurate I thought. The cost of Soyuz-2 is higher than Falcon9s, and the baseline of Atlas-5 is 109M

I don't think that Soyuz-2 is more expensive than Falcon, but pay attention for what year prices. Where did the information about Atlas V?

https://www.rocketbuilder.com/start/configure

Many thanks, after played with RocketBuilder, changed the values for Atlas V

[Guardian700]

Added a new launch vehicle - "Minotaur-C" with the cost of launching

[Guardian700]

Hi! On November 14, launch of the Delta II and the satellite JPSS 1, so adding Delta II to the table. But unfortunately found the cost of launch only for 2009. If someone has a new information, please write.

[gongora]

Hi! On November 14, launch of the Delta II and the satellite JPSS 1, so adding Delta II to the table. But unfortunately found the cost of launch only for 2009. If someone has a new information, please write.

There won't be any more Delta II rockets made (this is the next to last one).

[Guardian700]

There won't be any more Delta II rockets made (this is the next to last one).

I thought that they were no longer being run ... Let's see

[rayleighscatter]

There's a US government report online from last summer that has two charts with prices for commercially available rockets. The first chart is on page 22, the second chart is on page 30.

http://www.gao.gov/assets/690/686613.pdf

[Guardian700]

There's a US government report online from last summer that has two charts with prices for commercially available rockets. The first chart is on page 22, the second chart is on page 30.

http://www.gao.gov/assets/690/686613.pdf

Many thanks!!! Changed!

[Zed_Noir]

There's a US government report online from last summer that has two charts with prices for commercially available rockets. The first chart is on page 22, the second chart is on page 30.

http://www.gao.gov/assets/690/686613.pdf

Many thanks!!! Changed!

There is a typo in the first chart (table 4). It is $2684 per kg, not $2864 per kg for the Falcon 9. According to @LouScheffer.

It's even better than it looks - there's a typo in the table.   The SpaceX entry should be 2684 $/kg, not 2864.

This is immediately clear when you ask how Proton can be comparable.  They payload is 23,000 vs 22,800, or about 1% more.  But the cost is more than 1% higher.  So at least one of the numbers must be wrong, and it's SpaceX.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42617.msg1714471#msg1714471

[Guardian700]

There is a typo in the first chart (table 4). It is $2684 per kg, not $2864 per kg for the Falcon 9. According to @LouScheffer.

It's even better than it looks - there's a typo in the table.   The SpaceX entry should be 2684 $/kg, not 2864.

This is immediately clear when you ask how Proton can be comparable.  They payload is 23,000 vs 22,800, or about 1% more.  But the cost is more than 1% higher.  So at least one of the numbers must be wrong, and it's SpaceX.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42617.msg1714471#msg1714471

Before I change, who is LouScheffer? And why does he think so?

[LouScheffer]

There is a typo in the first chart (table 4). It is $2684 per kg, not $2864 per kg for the Falcon 9. According to @LouScheffer.

It's even better than it looks - there's a typo in the table.   The SpaceX entry should be 2684 $/kg, not 2864.

This is immediately clear when you ask how Proton can be comparable.  They payload is 23,000 vs 22,800, or about 1% more.  But the cost is more than 1% higher.  So at least one of the numbers must be wrong, and it's SpaceX.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42617.msg1714471#msg1714471

Before I change, who is LouScheffer? And why does he think so?

No need for reputation here.  The table itself has all the data.  The cost is 61.2 million.  The payload is 22,800 kg.   That gives a cost of $2684/kg.   But the cost per kg entry, on the same line, says $2864.   Seems pretty clear this is just a typo, since your calculator can show you that $2684 is the correct value.

[Guardian700]

No need for reputation here.  The table itself has all the data.  The cost is 61.2 million.  The payload is 22,800 kg.   That gives a cost of $2684/kg.   But the cost per kg entry, on the same line, says $2864.   Seems pretty clear this is just a typo, since your calculator can show you that $2684 is the correct value.

You're right, thanks - changed

[john smith 19]

There's a US government report online from last summer that has two charts with prices for commercially available rockets. The first chart is on page 22, the second chart is on page 30.

http://www.gao.gov/assets/690/686613.pdf

The actual physical pages are 27 and 35 respectively.

It's quite a range of $/Kg of mass, with over a decade in range. 

[Guardian700]

The actual physical pages are 27 and 35 respectively.

It's quite a range of $/Kg of mass, with over a decade in range.

Better than nothing

[john smith 19]

Better than nothing

It's a start.

[Rik ISS-fan]

I think this NASA presentation contains a lot of relevant info for this topic:
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20170009968.pdf

[Davidthefat]

Just a question: why is price per kg the most quoted criteria regarding prices of launch?

When contracting a launch, you don't say "we only take up 50% of your mass capabilities, we will only pay 50% of the launch". You pay for a launch, unless you do some ride share mission. Launches have fixed costs, and potentially NRE costs for different payload interface structures (if multiple payloads were on flight)

Also generally payloads do not get up to the 80% to 100% capacity range of the launch vehicles; you would actually be paying a much higher $/kg on those missions.

edit: I feel like it's akin to buying a sedan vs an SUV/Minivan. The SUV/Minivan may cost $38k vas $26k of a sedan, but the SUV holds 7 people. You are saying "I'm paying $5.4k per person with a SUV vs $6.5k for a sedan" even though you only carry 4 people.

[e of pi]

Just a question: why is price per kg the most quoted criteria regarding prices of launch?

When contracting a launch, you don't say "we only take up 50% of your mass capabilities, we will only pay 50% of the launch". You pay for a launch, unless you do some ride share mission. Launches have fixed costs, and potentially NRE costs for different payload interface structures (if multiple payloads were on flight)

Also generally payloads do not get up to the 80% to 100% capacity range of the launch vehicles; you would actually be paying a much higher $/kg on those missions.

edit: I feel like it's akin to buying a sedan vs an SUV/Minivan. The SUV/Minivan may cost $38k vas $26k of a sedan, but the SUV holds 7 people. You are saying "I'm paying $5.4k per person with a SUV vs $6.5k for a sedan" even though you only carry 4 people.

Obviously, $/kg is a simplified figure: it's one number, it could hardly ever be anything other than simplified. The benefit is the ability to compare product offerings or design approaches across a wide variety of sizes without having to stick a caveat of payload or capability on each one. The selection of a specific launcher for a specific mission doesn't just boil down to a comparison of $/kg between the launchers that are considered, but it can inform discussion to look at it when we want to compare broader categories of vehicles.

If a specific category of rockets (e.g. smallsat launchers like Pegasus or Electron have a significantly higher $/kg than larger vehicles (say, those with payloads >4 tons), which explains why multiple launching on larger vehicles is preferable for cubesats or smaller satellites like Orbcomm when conditions can allow sharing. If a specific manufacturer or vehicle production approach yields lower or higher $/kg across the board, then it offers a start to asking "what are they doing right/wrong?" and a basis for suggesting what LVs might exist in the future.

In your car example, I could say that $38k SUV is pricier per capacity. If I look at other vehicles in the automaker's line and they also have a higher $/passenger than the sedan manufacturer across their other vehicles, then I can say that if they ever made a sedan, it might also be pricer.

[Guardian700]

Added a new launch vehicles: «Zenit-3SLB», «Zenit-3F» («Zenit-2SB»)

[john smith 19]

I think this NASA presentation contains a lot of relevant info for this topic:
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20170009968.pdf

Interesting.

Zapata has been involved in identifying the drivers for launch costs since at least the mid 90's and (I think) the mid 80's.

It's interesting that the Pegasus still seems the only option that's actually available for primary launches in the in 100s of Kg despite the highest $/Kg. It's a very expensive launcher for not much payload. Another interesting point is that for Atlas 401 and how reasonably priced they are.

[john smith 19]

Just a question: why is price per kg the most quoted criteria regarding prices of launch?

It's a fair question and the answer is it does give a single metric across the whole range of LV's.

But you're right, you don't buy lift by the lb or Kg, you buy by the launch.

The other issue is a small LV simply can't carry the load, in the same way a car can't tow a 40ft container. If you want that you need an 18 wheeler.

A more subtle point is those prices only apply to full loads. Musk has talked of sub 1000$/lb for FH launches provided there are more than 4 a year and they are fully loaded IE to 50+tonnes, suggesting multiple ride shares will be needed if people actually want to get that low a price per Kg to orbit.

[AncientU]

Just a question: why is price per kg the most quoted criteria regarding prices of launch?

It's a fair question and the answer is it does give a single metric across the whole range of LV's.

But you're right, you don't buy lift by the lb or Kg, you buy by the launch.

The other issue is a small LV simply can't carry the load, in the same way a car can't tow a 40ft container. If you want that you need an 18 wheeler.

A more subtle point is those prices only apply to full loads. Musk has talked of sub 1000$/lb for FH launches provided there are more than 4 a year and they are fully loaded IE to 50+tonnes, suggesting multiple ride shares will be needed if people actually want to get that low a price per Kg to orbit.

Not true.  Your thinking is somewhat stuck in the historical launch market paradigm... somewhat self-perpetuating if no one builds a drastically cheaper launch technology.

Blue Origin's New Glenn launching 400 OneWeb sats in 5 launches is the type of commodity payload that can use bulk capacity (modulo packing factor/volume limitations).  Fuel deliveries to LEO is another. 

[Guardian700]

Long March-3C and prices for Long March-7 & «Ariane-6» added.

[Guardian700]

Price for «Epsilon» added

[Kosmos2001]

Dear Guardian700, is it possible to make the boxes wider? It is somehow laborious to read sometimes. Good work, btw.

[Guardian700]

Dear Guardian700, is it possible to make the boxes wider? It is somehow laborious to read sometimes. Good work, btw.

Many thanks. The width is only 900 px max. There is no place to expand, unfortunately ...

[Arb]

Dear Guardian700, is it possible to make the boxes wider? It is somehow laborious to read sometimes. Good work, btw.

Many thanks. The width is only 900 px max. There is no place to expand, unfortunately ...

Agreed with Kosmos2001. Also, why the limit?

[Guardian700]

Agreed with Kosmos2001. Also, why the limit?

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[whatever11235]

50% of page for ads is way too much.