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Data

Cost of space launches to low Earth orbit

See all data and research on:
Space Exploration & Satellites

What you should know about this indicator

  • Small vehicles carry up to 2,000 kg to .
  • Medium vehicles carry between 2,000 and 20,000 kg.
  • Heavy vehicles carry more than 20,000 kg.
Cost of space launches to low Earth orbit
Cost to launch one kilogram of payload mass to as part of a dedicated launch. This data is adjusted for inflation.
Source
CSIS Aerospace Security Project (2022) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
March 4, 2025
Next expected update
March 2026
Date range
1962–2019
Unit
constant 2021 US$ per kilogram

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

This dataset published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies compares costs between space launch vehicles by incorporating many vehicle characteristics into a single figure: the cost to launch one kilogram of payload mass to low Earth orbit (LEO) as part of a dedicated launch.

Many of the cited sources directly provide cost-per-kilogram estimates for launches to LEO. Others require a simple calculation: dividing the total cost of a dedicated launch by the vehicle's payload capacity to LEO. In those cases, the reported cost-per-kilogram figure is calculated by the median total launch cost and the maximum payload capacity.

Launch costs "include all direct and indirect manufacturing costs and their associated overhead plus recurring engineering, sustaining tooling, and quality control".

Cost estimates are inflated by the source to their dollar values in the fiscal year 2021.

Although space launch vehicles are often described by their payload mass class (most often "Small", "Medium", and "Heavy") there is no universally accepted definition for the boundaries between these classes. In this dataset, small-lift vehicles carry up to 2,000 kg to LEO, medium-lift vehicles carry between 2,000 and 20,000 kg to LEO, and heavy-lift vehicles carry more than 20,000 kg to LEO.

Retrieved on
March 4, 2025
Retrieved from
https://aerospace.csis.org/data/space-launch-to-low-earth-orbit-how-much-does-it-cost/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Center for Strategic and International Studies, The Aerospace Security Project - Space Launch to Low Earth Orbit: How Much Does It Cost? (2022).

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Cost of space launches to low Earth orbit”, part of the following publication: Edouard Mathieu, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2022) - “Space Exploration and Satellites”. Data adapted from CSIS Aerospace Security Project. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cost-space-launches-low-earth-orbit [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

CSIS Aerospace Security Project (2022) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

CSIS Aerospace Security Project (2022) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Cost of space launches to low Earth orbit” [dataset]. CSIS Aerospace Security Project, “Cost of space launches” [original data]. Retrieved March 10, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cost-space-launches-low-earth-orbit