Energy Aperture

Value chain · CLM-0532

In plain terms

A different space-solar-power company's own 2024 analysis estimates that a single non-reused Starship launch to low orbit would cost about $665 per kilogram, and that costs could fall toward $500/kg within a decade.

The claim as recorded

Virtus Solis's own 2024 analysis states "even with no reuse, the estimated launch cost is $665/kg to LEO" for Starship/Super Heavy, and projects, via Wright's-Law learning-curve extrapolation, a 10-year-forward range of USD 12.15-614/kg, with the company's own stated expectation of "launch costs in the $500/kg range within a decade."

Scope and limits

A LEO figure, not a GEO-delivered figure; does not by itself resolve the launches-per-tonne-to-GEO disagreement between NASA and Frazer-Nash, which is the actual point of contention (CLM-0531).

What it assumes

Wright's Law extrapolation is valid for launch-cost decline; Starship achieves the launch cadence needed to double cumulative launch mass roughly twice within ten years.

Where it comes from

SRC-013 Survey of Space Based Solar Power (SBSP): A Comparison of SBSP Reference Designs and their...
Reproduced from CLM-0187 in full.

Basis: USD, 2024 vintage, per kg to LEO

Related records
Answers question
QST-003 not published in this release

Cite this

energyaperture.com/c/clm-0532

CLM-0532, Energy Aperture, as of 2024.

Connected records

Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.

Also from SRC-013
CLM-0187The company's own 2024 analysis estimates that a single, non-reused Starship launch to low orbit would cost about $665 per kilogram, and...
CLM-0667One company's design deliberately avoids the standard high orbit used by other designs, because it believes waiting for compatibility with...
CLM-0668The same company's own numbers show that, using the identical rocket and the identical (chemical) engine type throughout, simply choosing a...
CLM-1194The company's first planned project is sized at 200 MW to the grid from a 732-tonne satellite, running nine-tenths of the time over a...
CLM-1195The design builds one thin, nearly kilometre-wide disc out of many metre-sized flat satellites, each with solar cells on one side and radio...
CLM-1196A separate, very light mirror flies beside each array and turns slowly, once a year, so the solar cells always see the Sun; for the first...
CLM-1197The company beams at 10 GHz and claims its beam loses nothing in space on the way down, where the other designs in its own table lose...
CLM-1198The first project's receiving site is a circle 2 km across, with two hours of batteries on the ground.
More on the source page.