SpaceX Starship's real cost revealed: How much Musk has spent to send humans to Mars

Elon Musk’s space technology company SpaceX has spent around $15 billion on developing its Starship, a towering two-stage rocket designed to take humans to the Moon and Mars.

According to the company’s IPO registration reviewed by Reuters, the investment in Starship is significantly higher compared to the cost of its Falcon 9 rocket, which remains the most frequently reused launch vehicle globally. SpaceX spent around $400 million on the development of Falcon 9.

SpaceX wants to reduce launch costs and increase mission frequency via Starship, which appears to be central to the company's future plans.

Starship is being developed to carry heavier payloads and support a broader range of missions, including deploying larger batches of next-generation Starlink satellites. 

This capability is expected to strengthen SpaceX’s satellite internet business while improving efficiency in orbit.

The company is also working toward an “airline-like” model for space launches, where rockets can be launched, recovered, and reused at a much higher frequency than current industry standards.

However, the program continues to face technical and operational challenges, including perfecting heat shield systems for safe re-entry, developing in-orbit refueling technology and building the infrastructure required to support rapid and repeated launches.

Starship is also expected to play a key role in NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon in the coming years. 

Earlier, it was reported that SpaceX was competing with Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to build a moon lander for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The SpaceX board has earlier tied CEO Elon Musk’s perks, in addition to his nominal salary of $54,000, to the colonisation of Mars.