Musk expects cargo to orbit to cost under $100 a kilogram
Musk pointed to reusable rockets as the main route to lower launch costs, citing SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Starship programs.
Elon Musk expects the cost of sending 1 kilogram of cargo to orbit to fall below $100, Russia's state news agency TASS reported on Saturday.
"I think we get to under $100 a kilogram to orbit," Musk said in an interview with entrepreneur Ron Baron.
Baron cited NASA's figure of $18,500 for the cost per kilogram in 2010, and said that figure dropped after SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket began launching.
Musk said Falcon 9 has around 80% usability because its booster returns and lands for reuse.
He said the upper stage is not reflown, and its cost is roughly that of a medium-sized jet, so the minimum cost per flight is about the price of that jet.
Musk argued that air travel would be scarce if every flight meant discarding a medium-sized jet, though he said Falcon 9 remains far cheaper than alternatives.
He said the Starship system is designed entirely for reusability, and forecast that SpaceX will eventually be able to launch its Super Heavy booster every hour.
In August, Musk said SpaceX expects to deliver up to 10 million tons of cargo per year to orbit in the future using the Starship space system.
Starship is SpaceX's large launch system, and its reusability is central to the lower costs Musk has described.
The remarks are forecasts about future pricing, and the source does not give a current per-kilogram cost for Starship launches.
