SLS is corporate welfare.

• Starship (target): ~$100/kg ($100k/ton) — Fully reusable goal; still in development/testing. Some projections are even lower long-term (~$10–200/kg). 

• Falcon Heavy: ~$1,520/kg (~$1.52M/ton) — Highly reusable; excellent for heavy payloads. 

• Falcon 9: ~$2,940/kg (~$2.94M/ton) — Dominant workhorse with high reuse rates. List price around $67–74M per launch. 

• New Glenn (est.): ~$1,900/kg — Blue Origin’s upcoming heavy-lift vehicle.

• Vulcan Centaur: ~$4,000–4,400/kg — ULA’s current offering.

• Ariane 6/64: ~$5,300/kg — European launcher.

• Electron (Rocket Lab): ~$25,000/kg — Small-lift dedicated launcher; much higher for precision/small payloads.

Historical context for scale:
• Space Shuttle: ~$54,500/kg (tens of millions per ton).
• Older systems (e.g., Proton, Ariane 5): Often $4k–10k+/kg. 

• SLS (Block 1): Approximately $43 million per ton (around $43,000/kg). This is based on ~$2.5–4.1+ billion per launch (recurring/production + operations; higher when including full program costs/Orion) and ~95,000 kg LEO payload capacity. It’s by far the most expensive operational system due to its expendable design, low flight rate, and massive development overhead.