Another SpaceX launch, this time of the Taiwanese Earth-Observation satellite Formosat-5. This was one of the lightest payloads ever launched on a Falcon 9 at only about 475 kilograms, are just over 1000 lbs. Most Falcon 9 payloads tend to be in the 3,000-7,000 kilogram weight range, with one going so far as 9,000 kilograms weight! Certainly this could have been launched on a smaller booster, but there actually aren’t as many options available as you would think – rockets seem to just stay at ever-increasing payload capacities with fewer low-weight options being available as time goes on.
It was a pretty typical launch, this time from Vandenberg Air Force Base SLC-4E in California. Of course there was another successful landing of the 1st stage on a drone ship, and the payload was inserted into its proper orbit.
As usual, here’s the launch from a non-SpaceX source. It is still just the live stream, but this cut skips ahead to the actual launch. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8Ys3Dd5mYs
Suppose the cost of the falcon 9 is 62 million .
The cost per ķg with that 475kg satelite is 130000/kg.
Think yout ticket to mars is still a long way off.
The cost gets better the more payload they launch, but that is still a very expensive launch either way you look at it!