Why can SpaceX reduce launch costs by 90% compared to traditional aerospace companies?

This can actually start with a simple analogy:

Imagine if every time a plane flew from Beijing to Shanghai, after landing, it was immediately scrapped and discarded. How expensive would that ticket be? This is essentially how space launches used to operate; rockets were single-use consumables, discarded into the ocean after use.

The most core and disruptive thing SpaceX has done is achieving rocket recovery and reusability.

This is like that airplane being able to fly repeatedly, only needing to be refueled and undergo maintenance each time. The most expensive part of a rocket is the first-stage booster (the largest section at the bottom, carrying a cluster of engines), which accounts for over 60% of the entire rocket's manufacturing cost. Through extremely precise control technology, SpaceX enables this massive component to fly back on its own after completing its mission, landing steadily on land or sea recovery platforms. This single innovation alone saves a huge amount of money. Now, they even recover and reuse the rocket's fairing (the 'cap' that protects satellites) using a large net.

This is the most intuitive reason, but at a deeper level, it's about their way of thinking and problem-solving, which is what you referred to as "First Principles".

This term might sound profound, but in plain terms, it means "digging to the root, returning to the essence of things".

A classic example: when traditional aerospace companies need a battery, they would source it from an aerospace-certified supplier. Because it carries the "aerospace-grade" label and has undergone countless certifications, this battery might cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But Musk's team would think this way:

1. What is the essence of this battery? Isn't it just a bunch of chemical materials like lithium, carbon, and nickel, plus some metal casing and circuit boards?
2. How much do these raw materials cost on the market? They might find out it's only a few thousand dollars.
3. So, where does the remaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in price difference come from? It's R&D, certification, brand premium, and supplier profit.
4. Conclusion: Why don't we research how to safely combine these raw materials into a high-performance battery ourselves? Even if we invest in R&D and manufacturing costs, it would still be far cheaper than buying it directly.

They applied this "digging to the bottom of things" mindset to every corner of the rocket: engines, airframe materials, electronic equipment... Instead of adhering to "industry norms" or "supplier quotes," they focused solely on the laws of physics and cost limits, then found every possible way to achieve it themselves.

Based on this way of thinking, two other major strategies naturally emerged:

1. Insane "Vertical Integration" Because they always prefer to do things themselves, SpaceX became a "manufacturing fanatic." From the most technologically advanced and core rocket engines to the airframe structure, and even the touchscreens inside the spacecraft, anything they could build themselves, they would never outsource. This is like a restaurant that not only cooks its own dishes but also makes its own soy sauce, vinegar, and even raises its own vegetables and pigs. The benefits of doing this are:

• Cutting out middlemen: Without layers of subcontracting and supplier profits, costs are naturally lower.
• Complete control: Design, production, and testing are all in their own hands, leading to extremely fast iteration. If they want to change a design, an engineer can just shout it out in their own factory, without needing half a year of meetings and procedures with suppliers.

2. "Rapid Iteration" like an Internet Company Traditional aerospace pursues "first-time success," spending ten years on design and five years on manufacturing, fearing failure. SpaceX, however, operates more like a Silicon Valley tech company, embracing "rapid iteration and not being afraid to make mistakes." They continuously build, test, and launch, sometimes even experiencing explosions (which they internally call "rapid unscheduled disassembly"), but each failure collects valuable data, making the next attempt better.

Furthermore, to deploy the "Starlink" constellation, they need to launch tens of thousands of satellites, which forces them to produce rockets like cars. When something transforms from a "handcrafted custom product" to a "mass-produced item," production volume increases, and the unit cost naturally plummets – this is the effect of scale.

So, to summarize, SpaceX's low cost isn't due to a single "black technology," but rather a comprehensive combination of strategies:

• The core is "recovery and reuse," transforming a one-time transaction into sustainable operations.
• The mindset is "First Principles," starting from the essence, doing it themselves, and driving costs down to the absolute minimum.
• The model is "vertical integration + rapid iteration," effectively pulling aerospace from a "handicraft workshop" industry to the level of a "modern factory assembly line."