1998: Deep Space 1 Delta II rocket $86 million 1999: Mars Polar Lander Delta II rocket $88 million 2001: Mars Odyssey Delta II rocket $96 million 2003: Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers two Delta II rockets $87 million per launch 2004: Swift Delta II rocket $90 million 2005: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Atlas V rocket $147 million 2007: Phoenix Mars lander Delta II rocket $132 millionLaunch prices for NASA missions soared after the late 2000s, following the creation of United Launch Alliance through a merger of the Atlas and Delta rocket programs developed by Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
The merger eliminated competition for most of NASA's launch contracts until SpaceX's Falcon 9 became available for NASA science missions in the mid-2010s.
Here's a sample of missions as examples of the rising costs, with contract values adjusted for inflation from the time of their award to reflect 2025 dollars: 2009: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Atlas V rocket $220 million 2012: Radiation Belt Storm Probes Atlas V rocket $226 million (averaged from a bulk buy) 2014: Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 Delta II rocket $191 million (averaged from a bulk buy) 2016: OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission Atlas V rocket $252 million 2017: TDRS-M data relay satellite Atlas V rocket $179 million 2017: JPSS-2 weather satellite Atlas V rocket $224 million 2018: InSight Mars lander Atlas V rocket $220 million 2018: ICESAT-2 Delta II rocket $134 millionAgain, the missions listed above would likely launch on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets if NASA awarded these contracts today.
So, how do SpaceX's more recent Falcon 9 prices compare? Let's take a look.
These contract values are adjusted for inflation from the time of their award to reflect 2025 dollars: 2016: Jason 3 oceanography satellite Falcon 9 rocket $114 million 2018: Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite Falcon 9 rocket $118 million 2020: Sentinel-6A Falcon 9 rocket $126 million 2021: Double Asteroid Redirection Test Falcon 9 rocket $86 million 2021: Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer Falcon 9 rocket $62 million 2022: Surface Water and Ocean Topography Falcon 9 rocket $148 million 2024: PACE Earth sciences mission Falcon 9 rocket $99 million 2025: SPHEREx astronomy mission Falcon 9 rocket $99 millionAnd here are a few future launches NASA has booked to fly on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
Some of these contracts were awarded in the last 12 months, and those have not been adjusted for inflation.
The others reflect 2025 dollars: 2025: Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe Falcon 9 rocket $134 million 2025: Sentinel-6B Falcon 9 rocket $101 million 2027: NEO Surveyor Falcon 9 rocket $100 million 2027: JPSS-4 weather satellite Falcon 9 rocket $113 million 2027: Compton Spectrometer and Imager Falcon 9 rocket $69 millionThere are a few other things worth noting when we chart NASA's launch prices.
One is that SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, used for NASA's heaviest missions, costs more than a Falcon 9 rocket.
For example, two identical weather satellites launched in 2022 and 2024 on ULA's Atlas V and SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket for $207 million and $178 million, respectively, again adjusted for inflation.