How does Starship achieve significantly lower dollars-per-kilogram launch costs?

Question

I’ve heard numbers such as $200/kg to LEO for Starship. I’m trying to understand this.

I figure that the Falcon Heavy is already about 96.5% reusable (at least 27 of 28 engines are reused). Based on the recent Roman telescope deal ($255M), Falcon Heavy costs $4000/kg.

How is Starship, which is basically only 3.5% “more reusable”, going to cost 20X less? Is methane massively better than RP5? Is stainless steel way better than aluminum? Is it because it’s taller? Fatter? Is it the tower catch? Is it because the booster returns to the launch pad instead of landing on a drone ship?

In: 3

Answer 1

You have a right to be puzzled. This $200/kg to LEO number is yet to become real. Economies of scale will bring down Starship launch costs, but to go from $4,000 to $200 is quite the leap.