Elon Musk’s Starship Launch to Cost Just $10 per Kg: How It Compares With ‘Heavy Lifters’ From 5 Decades Ago

The massive Artemis I rocket atop its mobile launch platform back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 26, 2022. Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images

The Tesla Inc. Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Starship is a launch vehicle the company is developing and testing for orbital launch and for transporting humans and cargo beyond Earth.

What Happened

Science, a peer-reviewed academic journal, on Sunday shared on Twitter a graphic showing the height, payload capacity, and inflation-adjusted cost per kilogram of some launch vehicles dating back to 1967.

The caption read, “Starship will be the biggest rocket ever. Are space scientists ready to take advantage of it?”