logoalt Hacker News

manquertoday at 2:12 AM2 repliesview on HN

As I mentioned at the end, if the pitch was just for the launch (and starlink) it would be an easy sell.

The problem is launch market is not worth 1.5+ trillion though, you need much more than just starlink and all the satellites today to justify that .

You and other early investors who had the opportunity to get in early may come of well in this and it was a good bet then.

However it is hard to see why rest of us should get in at $1.5T, the downside risks are far more than upside potential at this price .


Replies

aeternumtoday at 4:40 AM

At current launch numbers it may not be worth 1.5+ trillion but valuations aren't about current, they're about discounted future cash flows.

It seems logical that there could/will be far more demand for launch if the price were lower. Prices are quite extreme currently, a standard 3U cubesat (loaf of bread size) is $300k and that's just for orbit.

There could be lots of startups that want to try robotic space mining but launch costs just make that mostly impossible currently so there are only a select few. It's like valuing the Dutch East India company based on the trade volumes in 1603. Of course people are not going to be buying much pepper or nutmeg if it costs them weeks of labor, but build lots of reusable ships, and with each voyage, more people can afford your pepper and nutmeg until it's a common household item.

show 1 reply
applied_heattoday at 4:40 AM

I am sure Elon can launch some type of space based directed energy beam and use it to intercept missiles and drones.