The space industry has been charging $10K/lb to lift anything into orbit. SpaceX has gotten that down to about $1,500/lb. Isn’t that a big accomplishment?
If he can refurbish these boosters at a reasonable cost then the cost/lb. will drop even further. Musk has talked in the past about a figure of $500/lb. or even lower.
ULA sells the low-end Atlas V for about $165 million. The 401 (no solids) puts 9797 kg into a 28 degree inclination LEO. That works out to be about $7600 per pound (not "$10K"). The Falcon 9 costs $61.2 M and can put 13,150 kg into the same orbit. That works out to about $2116 lb. Yes, less cost -- by about a factor of 3.5, not almost 10. I agree that's an accomplishment, as I said in my original post.
If he can refurbish these boosters at a reasonable cost then the cost/lb. will drop even further.
Perhaps. Perhaps not. It all depends on; 1) accounting for the loss of performance by making the first stage recoverable; 2) the cost of retrieval, refurbishment and preparation for relaunch; 3) the life cycle costs of a reusable first stage; 4) the reliability of that reused stage, including any additional launch insurance costs for a less reliable reused stage. None of these factors are known (or even forseeable) now -- get back to me when he has an operational system.
Musk has talked in the past about a figure of $500/lb. or even lower.
I'm sure he has said this -- he famous for saying incredibly silly things.