Value chain · CLM-0407
In plain terms
Cutting the price of a rocket launch brings the electricity cost down to roughly the same low point NASA itself found, using an independently built model.
The claim as recorded
This model's reduced-launch-cost sensitivity for RD1 (100M USD/launch -> 0.623 USD/kWh; 50M -> 0.398 USD/kWh; 10M -> 0.217 USD/kWh) is directionally and approximately magnitude-consistent with NASA OTPS's own reported result of roughly 0.20 USD/kWh for RD1 under its lowest-cost launch and orbital-transfer sensitivities.
Scope and limits
Confirms the report's own launch-cost conclusion via an independent route; does not independently validate the $10M/launch assumption itself, which is a SpaceX public statement, not a delivered price.
What it assumes
Launch cost and refuel ratio held independent in this specific test (refuel ratio unchanged at 12:1); the electric-propulsion scenario (CLM-0254) tests the correlated case instead.
Where it comes from
This is the project's own working, shown in full:
Trace, Section 7, launch-cost rows; NASA OTPS report p.9-10, "resulted in the most significant reduction of LCOE to about 0.20 $/kWh for RD1".
Basis: FY2022 USD, nominal; discount rate 3%; RD1
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-038 not published in this release
- Supersedes
- CLM-0251 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0407
CLM-0407, Energy Aperture, as of 2026-09.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-012
- CLM-0006None of the five main studies mentions the international radio-frequency exposure limits, or any safety standard, or a restricted area...CLM-0123NASA's own 2024 study puts space solar power at 12 to 80 times the cost it expects in 2050 from power stations on the ground, a set it...CLM-0124NASA also found that if several things improve at once, rather than just one, space solar power does become cost competitive.CLM-0125On carbon, NASA found space solar power within the range of five renewable ways of making power on the ground (wind, solar, solar thermal...CLM-0144A NASA study found that launching everything into space is by far the biggest cost of a space solar power system, and that most of those...CLM-0192The full list of assumptions behind the headline result of NASA's 2024 study, that space solar power would cost far more than ground...CLM-0193To get to a competitive cost, NASA's own 2024 analysis needs launch costs to halve, solar cells to get much more efficient, satellites to...CLM-0240A from-scratch cost model of the "Innovative Heliostat Swarm" design gets almost the same electricity cost as NASA's own study: about 62...More on the source page.