[AR] Re: Another failed small launch company
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2019 17:06:43 -0400 (EDT)
On Sat, 10 Aug 2019, Bill Bruner wrote:
I think you mean "all hail to the one true smallsat launcher,
Falcon." There's no way any of them (including Electron) can compete with
the new SpaceX smallsat rideshare program ...
Assuming you can be happy with ride-sharing, that is. None of the current
raft of small launchers has ever been likely to be able to compete purely
on cost with big-launcher shared rides (whether dedicated rideshare
launches or secondaries on launches of bigger payloads); SpaceX hasn't
changed that. The value small launchers add is things you *don't* get
with shared rides, like control of schedule, relaxation of restrictions on
contents, and access to unusual orbits or precisely-chosen orbits.
There is also the question of whether SpaceX's program will still be there
five years from now. It wouldn't be the first smallsats-on-big-launchers
program to quietly evaporate when it failed to attract enough business
(often because its administrators demanded that customers use bigsat
launcher-integration processes, imposing far too much paperwork/analysis
overhead for most smallsat owners). In fact, it wouldn't be the first
*SpaceX* smallsat-launch program to evaporate when it failed to attract
enough customers -- don't forget Falcon 1.
Henry
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