[AR] Re: relativity abandons small launch vehicle
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket list <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2023 22:38:30 -0400 (EDT)
On Sun, 16 Apr 2023, James Fackert wrote:
The small launcher market seems to be much smaller and less lucrative
than projections indicated.
Much will depend on whether SpaceX stays in the ride-share market. A lot
of the forecast small-launch demand is going there instead. If they
decide that it's too much trouble for too little return -- and it wouldn't
be the first time they've abandoned the small-payload market! -- that will
change things.
Saturday morning's Transporter launch on Falcon 9 carried fifty small
payloads plus one more sizable one -- maybe a dozen small launches worth
of small payloads. (Not fifty because some of them were packaged together
or had other reasons for going up together, e.g. the three Hawks operate
as a three-satellite formation and needed to start in the same orbit.)
Mind you, I also agree with Jim that the market is not as big or as
lucrative as some people thought, at least not at current small-launch
prices.
Henry
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