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SpaceX's Rising Tide - Discussion of non-SpaceX launch companies
- Thread starter bxr140
- Start date
Depends on where you're going. Ideally (more or less), you'd launch from a latitude that correlates to your inclination...for GEOs that means the equator to maximize the velocity assist from the earth's rotation, but for polar launches you'd just as soon launch from high latitudes. Low latitudes can actually be a little less efficient for polar orbits, because polar orbits are typically slightly retrograde...which means the velocity assist from the earth's rotation is actually opposite what you want.
It stands to reason this spaceport in South Oz is primarily for polar launches.
Mostly because SPAC is in the air, its possible there are actually some bargains.
And it looks like VO, like most small launchers, are fixin' to expand beyond just launchers. This is actually where the small launcher market can provide a differentiator over spaceX. For many of the smaller fish that want to get into space, they'd just as soon not deal with the satellite part of it. The BYOP concept (bring your own payload) plays out pretty well here, where the space hopeful really just wants to focus on their whiz bang gizmo and not boring stuff like batteries and solar arrays and flying a satellite. The 'space as a service' concept can even go one step farther, where the space infrastructure company (launcher+sat+operations) company is commissioned to build/acquire payloads for the customer, and then the space infrastructure company simply sells pertinent data to the customer.
The upside to the customer there is moving Capex to Opex, though in practice its a little big harder to close, since someone has to pay for the inevitable Capex of building a launching a satellite. The upside to the infrastructure co is more consistent revenue and, ostensibly, higher profit margin.
And it looks like VO, like most small launchers, are fixin' to expand beyond just launchers. This is actually where the small launcher market can provide a differentiator over spaceX. For many of the smaller fish that want to get into space, they'd just as soon not deal with the satellite part of it. The BYOP concept (bring your own payload) plays out pretty well here, where the space hopeful really just wants to focus on their whiz bang gizmo and not boring stuff like batteries and solar arrays and flying a satellite. The 'space as a service' concept can even go one step farther, where the space infrastructure company (launcher+sat+operations) company is commissioned to build/acquire payloads for the customer, and then the space infrastructure company simply sells pertinent data to the customer.
The upside to the customer there is moving Capex to Opex, though in practice its a little big harder to close, since someone has to pay for the inevitable Capex of building a launching a satellite. The upside to the infrastructure co is more consistent revenue and, ostensibly, higher profit margin.
BO rolls out its first stainless steel test tank. It's very similar to what SpaceX is doing in South Texas 
arstechnica.com
First images of Blue Origin’s “Project Jarvis” test tank
"The reason I like vertical landing is because it scales so well."
arstechnica.com
Oh, I didn't say they wouldn't be, just that it will be interesting to see if they will be. They seem to have their tech sorted reasonably well, and systems that are able to sustain a decent launch cadence, but they are also moving away from their current launcher to the Next Big Thing which adds risk. Many a promising company has died after changing their focus from an initially successful product, and the small launcher market looks to be much more crowded than it needs to be. It seems like every country has a few companies working on being the next SpaceX or Rocket Lab, so the winnowing process will be interesting as will seeing what kinds of innovations the competitors bring to the table.
I wish them success, they've been fun to watch along the way, but what they're trying to do isn't easy and isn't getting any easier so it will be interesting to watch what the next five years brings for them, and their competitors.
On the heels of hiring a new COO and a successful static fire, Alpha could fly as soon as next week!
If their first flight isn't called "Serenity Now", I will be sorely disappointed.
In leaked email, ULA official calls NASA leadership “incompetent”
"Let me know if there’s anything else you need—we are here to serve!"
arstechnica.com
Some of the emails are so ridiculously bad, that is hard to believe those are real. Ok lobbyist work is made *sugar* up, produce FUD about competition.In leaked email, ULA official calls NASA leadership “incompetent”
"Let me know if there’s anything else you need—we are here to serve!"
Ha, "Elon Musk: Friend to China, Enemy of Democracy" and "Jim Bridenstine and Jim Morehard led NASA to eliminate competition to award billions to Trump supporters, like Elon Musk"
Lol, come on Rob! (can I call female; Rob. I pretty sure I can't call her Bob...)
The good news is that NBT is a more 'full service' solution than simply a ride to space (as noted a few posts up in context to VO), and that really does seem to be where the emerging launch industry can provide differentiating service over someone like SpaceX. So yeah its a risk, but its more along the lines of "SpaceX is considering reusable rockets, are they going to make it happen?" kind of risk, rather than, for example, some random (= every) project at X.
Acquiring Doug (and his shop) was a huge move for Rocket Lab in that direction too. Despite a long legacy of horizontal supply chains in the space industry SpaceX has clearly shown that, properly done, verticalization is the way to go. And because Doug is pretty much ubiquitous in this space, beyond just acquiring Sinclair products and technology there's a ton of credibility that comes along with him personally.
Hiring Ehson away from Tyvak was mega too. Lots of right steps in the right directions for RL's aspirations.
