Launch

Only 37 days separated Starship’s Flight 5 launch from yesterday’s Flight 6.

It was a Willy Wonka-style event—a wealthy entrepreneur finally opening the doors to his secretive facility filled with innovative gadgets at a scale beyond imagination. However, instead of chocolate rivers, fizzy-lifting drinks, and Everlasting Gobstoppers, we were treated to fuel lines, heavy-lifting rockets, and boosters designed to last 25 launches.

In 2008, Falcon 1 became the first privately funded, fully liquid-fueled launch vehicle to reach orbit. Its development cost? Just $90M ($131M inflation adj.).

With Starliner slated to transport crew to the ISS for the first time next week, we’re digging into all the money spent to get here—from NASA’s contributions and seat pricing to the total development expenditures.

We have entered the Starship era.

Blue Origin aims to land its Blue Moon Mark 1 cargo vehicle on the Moon next year, setting an aggressive timeline as it seeks to chart a new course of decisive action and big swings after not reaching orbit in its first two decades of operations.