However, Ryugu also contains other vital resources—ammonia, nitrogen, and metals. What makes these resources so valuable is their trajectory above Earth’s gravity well. . . .” The hologram panned away from Ryugu and zoomed in toward Earth once more. “Even with today’s reusable launch systems, it currently costs seventeen hundred dollars per kilogram to lift a payload into low Earth orbit.” A holographic rocket barely climbed off the Earth. “It costs over twice this amount to lift a kilo of payload to a geostationary transfer orbit—or GTO—36,000 kilometers above Earth.”
in real life: a flight to LEO on a Falcon 9 rocket with a reused first stage costs about $50 million for a 15,600kg maximum reusable payload; meaning the price per kilo to LEO is about $3,205.
