Skip to main content

SpaceX will let you launch a satellite into space for as little as $1 million

SpaceX is taking applications for its much-anticipated rideshare program. Don’t get your hopes up — it’s for rockets, not humans. Called the Smallsat Rideshare Program, it’s aimed at small satellite customers. 

Recommended Videos

Applications for the program opened up on February 5, and rideshare missions start at $1 million to use a Falcon 9 rocket to get your satellite into orbit. In the grand scheme of things, a $1 million price point is cheap for this sort of thing. 

Interested applicants can choose between their desired orbit — sun-synchronous, low-Earth or, polar — and their desired date (flights begin this June). Inputting your estimated payload will give you an estimated cost, but pricing starts at $1 million for up to 400 pounds at a sun-synchronous orbit. After that, it’s an additional $5,000 for approximately every 2 pounds (1 kg). 

SpaceX

SpaceX can also offer on-site fueling, insurance, and port adapters for additional costs. A $5,000 credit card deposit is required before you “check out.” 

There’s an extensive user guide on what requirements you have to meet to use the program, but it’s the first program of its kind that allows essentially anyone with the right technology (and enough money) to launch something into space. 

The program also means that smaller customers would no longer have to “piggyback” on a larger launch, enabling them to plan their mission with much greater assurance.

In August, SpaceX told Digital Trends that the company is aiming to ramp up commercial its efforts. 

“We’re committed to serving the commercial market as it grows and changes, and we believe we can address the needs of small satellite operators by offering reliable, cost-effective access to orbit through regularly scheduled, dedicated rideshare missions,” a SpaceX spokesperson said.

The online application tool is just as easy as ordering a custom car model on Tesla’s website, SpaceX’s sister company. 

Aside from helping others get their satellites into space, SpaceX also launches its own Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbits. So far, it’s launched four batches (about 240 satellites) into space since May of last year. 

In the company’s own words, the Starlink satellite project aims to “deploy the world’s most advanced broadband internet system” to provide “fast, reliable internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.” 

Allison Matyus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…
SpaceX reveals date for next flight of Starship megarocket
The Starship launching from Starbase in October 2024.

SpaceX has revealed that it is targeting Monday, November 18, for the sixth test of the Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket comprising the first-stage Super Heavy booster and the upper-stage Starship spacecraft.

The massive vehicle, which creates around 17 million pounds of thrust at launch, is set to be used by NASA for crew and cargo missions to the moon, and possibly even Mars, though there’s still much testing to be done.

Read more
A SpaceX Crew Dragon is doing a shuffle at the ISS — here’s how to watch
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov approaches the International Space Station as it orbits 259 miles above Oregon.

This week will see a special maneuver at the International Space Station (ISS) as a SpaceX Crew Dragon takes one of the tiniest flights ever, hopping just a few meters over from one port of the station to another. And NASA will live stream the event, so you'll be able to watch the spacecraft take this short flight as it happens.

The changeover is necessary to make space for another SpaceX craft that will arrive on Monday, October 4. But this new arrival won't carry any crew as it is a cargo craft, part of the 31st commercial resupply services mission by SpaceX. This new arrival will dock at the forward-facing port on the Space Station's Harmony module, as it is easiest for craft to dock there than on the space-facing side. But the Crew Dragon is currently occupying this port, so it needs to undock, move to the other space-facing port, and redock there.

Read more
A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft has set a new record
SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX’s Crew-8 members are finally on their way home after spending nearly eight months at the International Space Station (ISS).

The crew members were supposed to depart the ISS several weeks ago, but poor weather conditions at the splashdown site off the coast of Florida prompted mission planners to delay the homecoming. Prior to that, delays to departure were caused by measures to deal with Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft, which was docked at the station over the summer.

Read more