How much do rockets cost?

The price of a rocket isn't the price of the vehicle, but of the launch service: the customer pays to place a given mass into a specific orbit, and the fee covers manufacturing, propellant, staff, insurance, and use of the launch pad. That's why the figures compare best in dollars per launch or per kilogram. At the low end, Rocket Lab's Electron is offered at around $7.5 million to carry up to 300 kg to low Earth orbit. In the middle, SpaceX's Falcon 9 advertises $69.75 million for a dedicated mission capable of placing more than 22 t into low Earth orbit. At the high end, NASA's Space Launch System exceeds $2 billion per flight according to its Office of Inspector General, not counting development.

Three factors explain the difference. The first is flight rate: a rocket that flies a hundred times a year spreads the fixed costs of the factory and workforce across many missions; one that flies once a year concentrates them on a single customer. The second is reusability: recovering the first stage avoids building the most expensive part of the vehicle again, though it requires inspections and reserving propellant for landing. The third is mission demands: carrying crew or multi-billion-dollar payloads requires redundancies and certifications that raise the cost of every part.

The public rate is only the starting point. Government contracts add integration services, safety analysis, and sometimes dedicated launch pads, so a government mission on the same rocket can cost twice as much as a commercial one. In the other direction, rideshare flights let a small satellite fly for a few hundred thousand dollars. To compare offers, the useful figure is still cost per kilogram to the target orbit.