A new study has revealed that NASA’s costs for launch services have continued to rise steadily over the past three decades, despite efforts to increase competition through commercial partnerships. According to the report, the prices NASA pays for launch services grew at an average annual rate of 2.82 percent, adjusted for inflation, between 1996 and 2024.
This trend persisted even after NASA brought SpaceX on board as an additional launch provider in 2016—a move widely expected to help reduce expenses through increased competition and lower-cost alternatives. “While the entry of SpaceX significantly changed the launch market in terms of frequency and innovation, it hasn’t translated into overall cost savings for NASA,” the study notes.
Analysts suggest several reasons for the persistent cost increases, including the complexity of NASA missions, which often require highly customized launch solutions, and inflationary pressures on materials, labor, and logistics.
The findings come as NASA faces growing scrutiny over the cost of its major programs, including the Artemis Moon missions and satellite science projects. Although commercial providers like SpaceX have slashed launch costs for many private and international clients, NASA’s unique technical and safety demands continue to drive up its expenditures. With launch costs showing no sign of reversing, the study raises questions about the long-term affordability of NASA’s exploration ambitions—even in a rapidly evolving and increasingly crowded space industry. There had been high hopes that SpaceX’s partially reusable rockets, the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, would significantly drive down launch costs for NASA and other clients. Early on, the company’s innovations did lead to noticeable savings and marked a turning point in launch economics. However, these cost-cutting effects proved to be short-lived, as prices soon began to climb again, driven by increasing demand, mission complexity, and broader economic factors.
