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If this was NASA doing what Elon is doing with SpaceX it would cost the tax payer about three to five times as much.

IIRC, the company that owned the satellite he launched, Razaksat, on the Falcon 1 rocket was only charged about $6 or $7 million dollars to be launched into orbit. If NASA would have launched it the cost would have been around $30 million.

Here’s a Wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX
‘Musk believes the high prices of other space-launch services are driven in part by unnecessary bureaucracy. He has stated that one of his goals is to improve the cost and reliability of access to space, ultimately by a factor of ten.[13] SpaceX became the first private company to successfully launch and return a spacecraft from orbit on 8 December 2010, after its Dragon capsule returned from a two-orbit flight.[14] Space Foundation recognized SpaceX for its successful Dragon launch and recovery with the Space Achievement Award in 2011.[15]

‘At various conferences, SpaceX has revealed concept slides for future engine, stage, and launch vehicle designs. Development of these designs would be predicated on demand for increased performance. Company plans in 2004 called for “development of a heavy lift product and even a super-heavy, if there is customer demand” with each size increase resulting in a significant decrease in cost per pound to orbit. Projected dollar cost per pound to orbit could drop from $4,000 to $1,300 ($8,800/kg to $2,900/kg) between Falcon 1 and the five-engine concept vehicle, Falcon 5. CEO Elon Musk said: “I believe $500 per pound ($1,100/kg) or less is very achievable.”’

Right now the cost to launch a satellite is $10,000 per pound. If his company can bring it down to half or a tenth of that then access to space to a greater number of people increases significantly.