The last supplier is the launch provider
Everything upstream — the parts, the integration, the tests — ends in a shipping container going to a launch site. Launch is the largest single line in most small-satellite budgets and the least flexible: you buy a slot months or years ahead, on a vehicle whose schedule you do not control, to an orbit you can only partly choose.
Dedicated vs. rideshare
| Dedicated launch | Rideshare | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | Electron, Firefly Alpha, Falcon 9 (for large payloads) | SpaceX Transporter/Bandwagon, aggregators (Exolaunch, ISILaunch, D-Orbit) |
| Cost (2025–26) | ~$7–10M for a 200–300 kg-class small launcher; ~$70M for a Falcon 9 | Roughly $6,000–6,500 per kg on Transporter (minimum ~50 kg), more via aggregators for small sats |
| Orbit | Yours: altitude, inclination, LTAN | Theirs: usually ~500–550 km SSO; adjust with your own propulsion or an orbital transfer vehicle |
| Schedule | Yours, within reason | Fixed; you miss it, you wait for the next |
| Risk | Single-point: your satellite is the mission | Shared: a stuck deployer or a neighbour's failure can affect you |
Rideshare made a 100 kg satellite launchable for under a million dollars — the single biggest reason NewSpace exists. But it moved the orbit problem onto the customer, which is why electric propulsion and orbital transfer vehicles (Impulse, Momentus, D-Orbit ION) became businesses.
The costs that are not the $/kg
- Integration and deployer fees. The separation system, the fit checks, the adapter.
- Transport. A satellite travels in a conditioned container with shock loggers, often with a chaperone. Air freight of a Class-100 cleanroom in a box is not cheap.
- Range and campaign. Weeks at the launch site with a team, hotel bills, and a cleanroom rental.
- Propellant loading, if you ship dry (you usually must for hazardous propellants).
- Insurance.
Insurance in three lines
Pre-launch covers the hardware from factory to ignition. Launch covers the ride — typically priced at 5–10 % of insured value for proven vehicles, more for new ones. In-orbit covers the first year(s) of operation and is where premiums have spiked after a run of GEO failures. Many small-sat operators self-insure launch: with ten satellites in a constellation, losing one is a budget line, not a catastrophe.
Model it
The calculator adds up the true delivered cost of a rideshare satellite. Notice how insurance and integration together rival the headline $/kg. In Space Tycoon this exact trade — pay for the fast lane or accept the rideshare schedule, insure or self-insure — is a daily decision; the logistics costs on your cargo manifests follow the same shape. See /space-tycoon and, for the real thing, the Launch Cost Calculator.