How much does it cost to launch a rocket?

There's no single price because "rocket" covers everything from an 18 m light launcher to a 100 m vehicle capable of reaching the Moon. At the low end, Rocket Lab lists its Electron at around 8 million dollars per flight, carrying about 300 kg to low Earth orbit. In the middle range, Falcon 9 sits at around 70 million for over 20 t, and Ariane 6 or Vulcan compete at similar or somewhat higher figures, though without a public price list. At the top, NASA's SLS costs more than 2 billion dollars per launch for the rocket alone, and more than 4 billion if the Orion spacecraft and ground operations are included, according to the agency's inspector general audits.

The price includes much more than propellant, which accounts for only about 1% of the total. What's expensive is the disposable hardware, engines and tanks built to aerospace tolerances, integration labor, the rental of the pad and tracking systems, insurance, and the amortization of development costs. A reusable rocket spreads the hardware cost across several flights, which is why prices have fallen over the past decade.

To compare such different vehicles, the industry uses cost per kilogram placed in orbit. A small launcher can cost more than 20,000 dollars per kilogram despite its low total price, while a shared ride on Falcon 9 drops below 10,000, and the targets SpaceX has announced for Starship point to much lower figures if full reusability works out. Customers choose based on their payload: total price matters to someone with a small satellite who wants a specific orbit; cost per kilogram matters to someone launching constellations.