India Has World’s Costliest Rocket Launches, Cambridge Study Finds

India's space programme has long been regarded as one of the world's most cost-efficient, with ISRO widely associated with frugal engineering and relatively low-cost missions. However, a new academic study by researchers from the University of Cambridge and Politecnico di Torino has challenged that widely held perception, finding that India's estimated cost of launching a kilogram of payload to Low Earth Orbit was the highest among the major spacefaring nations studied in 2025.

According to the study, India's estimated launch cost stood at $13,302 (around ₹11.6 lakh) per kg, compared with $3,225 (around ₹2.8 lakh) in the US.

The finding is striking because ISRO launches have traditionally been believed to be among the cheapest in the world, particularly when the overall cost of missions is compared with those of other major space agencies. India's reputation for achieving complex missions at relatively low costs has been a key part of the country's space success story.

However, the Cambridge study uses a different metric — estimated cost per kilogram of payload delivered to Low Earth Orbit — and on this measure, India ranked as the most expensive among the countries and regions examined.

India At The Top Of Cost Table

The study's estimated 2025 figures were:

India — $13,302 (₹11.6 lakh) per kg
Europe — $9,897 (₹8.6 lakh) per kg
Russia — $6,682 (₹5.8 lakh) per kg
China — $5,809 (₹5.1 lakh) per kg
Japan — $5,287 (₹4.6 lakh) per kg
US — $3,225 (₹2.8 lakh) per kg

The global average stood at around $3,868 per kg.

Finding Challenges India’s ‘Frugal Space’ Image

The finding appears counterintuitive given India's long-standing reputation for frugal space engineering.

However, the researchers point out that the figure should not be interpreted as the price charged for an individual rocket launch. It is a country-level estimate of the average cost of placing a kilogram of payload into Low Earth Orbit.

One factor highlighted by the study is the relatively smaller payload capacity of Indian launch vehicles. Fixed launch costs are spread across fewer kilograms, resulting in a higher estimated cost per kilogram.

Why US Launches Are Cheaper

The US has a significant scale advantage in the launch market. According to the study, the United States accounted for more than 80% of the global payload sent into orbit in 2025.

The researchers also found statistically significant experience curves in the US and Europe since 2010, meaning launch costs have fallen as accumulated experience increased.

India, China, Russia and Japan did not show the same statistically significant pattern in the period analysed.

Low Launch Frequency A Challenge For India

The study suggests that increasing launch frequency could help India bring down costs by allowing the industry to accumulate experience, improve efficiency and spread infrastructure costs across more missions.

The findings come as India is seeking to expand its commercial space sector and attract greater private participation in satellite manufacturing and launch services.

For India's ambitions to become a major global space hub, the study suggests that launch scale, frequency and cost efficiency could be as important as developing new rockets and technologies.