Getting to orbit used to be the hard part.

Sending one kilogram to low Earth orbit cost about $54,000 on the Space Shuttle. A reused Falcon 9 does it for about $3,000, and Starship aims for $100.

Cost per kg to low Earth orbit

Space Shuttle retired 2011~$54,000
Rideshare seat small satellites, shared rocket~$6,000
Falcon 9 full rocket, reused booster~$3,000
Starship target, not yet achieved~$100

−94%

Drop in launch cost per kg from the Shuttle to a reused Falcon 9.

~$6K / kg

A shared rideshare seat lets small teams launch small satellites without buying a whole rocket.

$100 / kg

Starship's target, 30× cheaper than Falcon 9 today. Not reached yet, but the direction is clear.

Our take for founders: cheap launch moved the bottleneck from rockets to what you put on them. Sensors, onboard AI, and turning satellite data into products are where small European teams can win.

Approximate list prices. Sources: Falcon 9 (Wikipedia), Orbital Radar launch cost trends.

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