Is China’s commercial rocket now cheaper than Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9?

The Kinetica-2 Y1 carrier rocket, also known as the Lijian-2 Y1, took off on its inaugural flight on Monday before delivering three satellites into orbit, including a prototype commercial cargo spacecraft and a satellite to function as a mini-orbiting space lab.

The rocket developed by Chinese commercial space firm CAS Space – established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences – was launched from the commercial innovation pilot zone at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwestern China.

It cost 30,000 yuan per kilogram (US$4,350 per 2.2lbs) of payload capacity to launch the Kinetica-2, according to Yang Haoliang, the firm’s vice-president and chief commander of the rocket.

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Yang said on Monday that the craft’s current non-reusable launch cost was about the same as Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable rocket at US$5,000 per kg, according to Star Market Daily, a financial news subsidiary of the state-owned Shanghai Media Group.

South China Morning Post