Elon Musk says he's 'highly confident' that SpaceX's Starship rocket launches will cost less than $10 million within 2-3 years
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
- Elon Musk said SpaceX's Starship launches will cost less than $10 million within 2-3 years.
- Musk predicted that one Starship rocket launch could cost a few million dollars in the future.
- SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket currently costs customers $62 million to launch.
Elon Musk said he's confident that SpaceX's Starship rocket launches will cost less than $10 million within two to three years.
The SpaceX CEO stood in front of the 400-feet-tall Starship rocket on Thursday evening at the company's South Texas launch site whilst giving an update on the spacecraft that the company intends will one day carry people and cargo to Mars.
"I'm highly confident it would be less than $10 million all in, fast forward two or three years from now," Musk said about flight prices during the presentation.
He said this cost estimate included all of SpaceX's expenses for a launch.
Starship, which is designed to be fully reusable, will likely launch into orbit for the first time this year, according to Musk.
Musk did not give a figure for current launch costs for Starship. For comparison, SpaceX currently charges customers $62 million for the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket, which is considerably smaller than a Starship.
Musk said a Starship flight could cost a few million dollars or "maybe even as low as a million dollars per flight" in the future.
"These are crazy low costs by space standards," Musk said.
Costs will improve significantly over time, Musk said, adding that the more Starship rockets that launch, the lower the cost per flight.