India's cost of launching a kilogram to orbit is highest among major spacefaring nations, study finds

India spends more to put a kilogram of payload into orbit than any other major spacefaring nation, according to a peer-reviewed analysis of more than six decades of rocket launches, published in the journal Economics Letters. The finding sits awkwardly with India's public image as a cost-effective launcher of satellites.

The authors, Alessio Terzi of the University of Cambridge and Francesco Nicoli of the Politecnico di Torino, estimate that in 2025 it cost $13,302 to send one kilogram to low-Earth orbit — the band of space nearest Earth, where most satellites operate — on Indian rockets. That compares with $9,897 for Europe, $6,682 for Russia, $5,809 for China, $5,287 for Japan and $3,225 for the United States. The global average stood at $3,868, roughly a quarter of the Indian figure.

The reason, the authors say, is that the Indian Space Research Organisation mostly flies small rockets. The fixed cost of a launch — the expense of preparing and flying the vehicle, which stays much the same however much it carries — is therefore spread across very little payload. A big rocket can divide those unchanging costs over many tonnes of cargo; a small one cannot, and the price of every kilogram delivered to orbit climbs as a result.

The study also examined the 'experience curve' of launch providers — the tendency for costs to fall steadily as cumulative launches grow. Since 2010, only the United States and Europe have shown a statistically significant experience curve, it finds. India, the authors write, simply does not launch often enough to bring its costs down.