Despite its reputation, India’s per-unit space launch cost highest: study

India spends extra to place a kilogram of payload into orbit than another main spacefaring nation, marring its public picture as a cheap launcher, in line with a brand new peer-reviewed evaluation of greater than six a long time of rocket launches printed in Economics Letters.

The authors, Alessio Terzi of the College of Cambridge and Francesco Nicoli of Politecnico di Torino, estimate that it value $13,302 to ship a kilogram to low-earth orbit on Indian rockets in 2025 — increased than Europe ($9,897), Russia ($6,682), China ($5,809) and Japan ($5,287), and the U.S. ($3,225). The worldwide common was $3,868.

The authors say the excessive value is because of ISRO principally flying small rockets, on account of which the mounted value of every launch is unfold throughout little or no payload. The examine finds that solely the U.S. and Europe have proven a statistically important expertise curve — that means prices falling steadily as cumulative launches develop — since 2010. India, the authors write, merely doesn’t launch usually sufficient to convey its prices down.