Week in Space Data, every Friday.
What it costs to launch mass to orbit at published prices, and what real space stations, depots and other orbital programmes have published about their costs.
Enter a mass and pick a launch option. Prices come from the SpaceNexus launch-vehicle catalogue and SpaceX's published rideshare rate; the result is arithmetic on those prices, not a quote.
A dedicated launch is sold per vehicle, so the estimate is the catalogue price times the launches needed at the catalogue's maximum payload to low Earth orbit (22,800 kg). For Falcon vehicles that maximum assumes an expended booster while the price is for a reusable flight, so treat the result as a lower bound. Catalogue as of 2026-10-09. Vehicle source
12 figures, each from the source linked beside it, checked 2026-10-11. Many are contract awards or company estimates rather than the full cost of a system; each row says what the money covers.
Crewed stations in low Earth orbit: the International Space Station and the commercial stations NASA is helping to fund as its successors.
Storing and moving cryogenic propellant in orbit. NASA has paid for in-space demonstrations rather than a working depot.
Collecting sunlight in orbit and beaming the power to the ground. Work so far is research and small demonstrations.
Spacecraft that capture a piece of debris and bring it down.
Launch prices come from the SpaceNexus launch-vehicle catalogue and SpaceX's published prices for rideshare missions; vehicles with no published price, and Electron (Rocket Lab publishes no list price), are left out. Contract prices differ by customer and mission, and most of the cost of an orbital system is the hardware, which few programmes publish.
This page used to show itemised parts lists, insurance premiums and total costs for eleven hypothetical systems. Those figures had no sources, so we removed them. Space insurance market figures with sources are on the space insurance page.