None of it is going to be cheap. Garriott told me that the R&D phases up to suborbital flight are expected to cost about $200 million, and the total cost to scale up to full orbital flights will be around a billion dollars. Which means the capital for the next phases of their development will need to be raised as the company moves along its development path.
I dont think elon has anything to worry about yet in terms of competition yet though the design seems to not really be that much cheaper than conventional ones. Cheaper yes but not an order of magnitude cheaper. At the very least you would have an impressive weapon for defense with minor alterations.
It's a nice PR touch to show its powered by renewables and to say they want to move away from chemical power when in all likelihood they will launch it on coal power.
Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with none.