alt Hacker NewsIf SpaceX doesn't get Starship operational soon, they're going to lose their advantage to Blue Origin and probably at least one of the several Chinese rocket companies.
Replies
minetest2048 • yesterday at 8:37 PM
> several Chinese rocket companies
As much as I want to fly with Chinese rocket to encourage launcher competition and redundancy, export controls prevent me from doing that.
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firesteelrain • yesterday at 7:57 PM
I don’t see how. SpaceX is still very agile and has the most reliable launch platform
bell-cot • yesterday at 8:47 PM
Perhaps. But history suggests that "soon" will still be 6+ years. Scaling up from the first few successful launches of a(n orbital) rocket, to high-frequency / high-reliability / low cost launches of that rocket, appears to be extremely difficult.
Even without Starship Falcon Heavy is still competitive with New Glenn, and nobody is anywhere close to competing with Starlink (Amazon is still far behind, as is ASTS). And if Starship works SpaceX will still be in the lead for a long, long time.
IMO the only remaining unanswered question for the Starship program is the reusability of the heat shield. There's no reason to believe any other part of it can't work.