Small launch companies struggle to compete with SpaceX rideshare missions
Small launch companies struggle to compete with SpaceX rideshare missions
Industry executives argue that SpaceX’s dominant position in the launch market is making it difficult for small launch vehicles to compete.
Are they talking about space tourism or co-op with other space organizations
No, they are talking about things like cubesat launches and other small payloads. Comes down to is spacex using predatory pricing or are they just cheaper. The small launch market has too many companies anyway so there will be a shaking out. Just depends on exact role spacex is playing in that. There could be antitrust issues.
Spacex has long published their price lists for launching with a single payload/client.
Rideshare missions should then be more expensive than this cost divided by the number of slots/weight available as there are integration and other overhead costs to account for.
If they’re lower than SpaceX are potentially dumping prices.
However. If you have committed to flying anyway, and you want to sell the last slots, just like airlines do, it can make sense to lower the price for the remaining seats.
All that said, it seems pretty obvious that most small launch companies will struggle to compete with SpaceX on price.
Same way as it’s hard to establish boutique manufacturing that competes with mass manufacturing on price.
My bet is that RocketLab will survive and most of the others will perish or be consolidated (and then possibly perish).