Every time SpaceX launches a partially reusable Falcon 9 spacecraft into orbit, it charges its customer up to $74 million. According to SpaceX's launch capabilities and services page, these rockets can carry 22 tons of cargo to low Earth orbit when operating in expendable mode -- a bit less when the first stage is reused.
But what do you think SpaceX might charge for launching a payload of five or more times that 22-ton size -- 100 to as many as 150 tons?
Image source: Getty Images.
Would SpaceX charge $370 million, perhaps -- five times the price of a Falcon 9 launch? Or might it charge less than that, undercutting its competition at United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, and Blue Origin on price, at the same time as it outclasses them in performance?
Turns out, the second answer is the correct one. We just learned how much SpaceX plans to charge for a fully maxed out, dedicated Starship launch (once Starship is certified for commercial launches):
$90 million.
From $74 million to $90 million
We learned this, incidentally, from a most unexpected source. One of SpaceX's first customers for Starship: Voyager Technologies (VOYG +9.52%).
In its 10-K filing with the SEC last week, space company Voyager reminded shareholders that it has a contract in place to launch its first-ever space station, Starlab, atop a SpaceX Starship sometime in 2029. We knew that already, of course. What we didn't know was the cost of the launch. That answer, too, resides deep within the 10-K, where on page 138 Voyager discloses that "one launch at a future estimated launch date" will cost it $90 million.
Voyager didn't say straight out and all in one place: "We're paying $90 million to SpaceX to launch on Starship." But it said the two things separately in two different places -- and made it easy for investors to connect the dots.
A steal of a deal
It's difficult to overemphasize how important this price is for Voyager. For $90 million, in one single launch, it will put in orbit a space station with 400 cubic meters of volume, able to support 100% of the work that's currently being done aboard ISS, a station that took nearly three decades and 36 separate NASA Space Shuttle launches (at roughly $1.5 billion each) -- plus six Russian rocket launches -- to be fully assembled.
That's a total cost of more than $54 billion in today's dollars.
SpaceX is going to do essentially the same job, and charge Voyager only $90 million for it.
NYSE: VOYG
Key Data Points
What this means for SpaceX
SpaceX has famously announced it will IPO later this year at an estimated $1.75 trillion valuation. The company's already profitable, according to analysts. Switching from running missions with Falcon 9 to Starship, with the ability to either charge more for Starship's greater capability or charge less to undercut competition and win market share -- or a little bit of both -- implies SpaceX could become much more profitable after its IPO, and after it gets the bugs worked out of Starship.
SpaceX has a lot of flexibility here, and multiple levers to pull to adjust sales growth and profit margin. We know how Starship is pricing its beginning. Now we just need to watch how it changes over time.
