SpaceX can reliably deliver payloads to orbit at far lower cost than their competition; as they start to re-use vehicles in earnest, that cost will fall even fu

SpaceX can reliably deliver payloads to orbit at far lower cost than their competition; as they start to re-use vehicles in earnest, that cost will fall even further. Falcon Heavy is now the most powerful rocket in commercial service by a factor of two. Two years ago they were a highly promising competitor; today, they're the market leader. Khrunichev are out of the game. The old Proton vehicles are cheap, but they're very unreliable due to a barely-modernised 1960s design and poor construction. They flew four launches in 2017, versus SpaceX's eighteen; by all accounts their order book is looking very sparse indeed. Their new Angara vehicle hasn't flown since the first orbital test flight in 2014 and has attracted no real commercial interest. ULA can't even begin to compete on cost. Without the capability and readiness contract from the US government, they'd be out of the game entirely. They didn't even bother to bid for the GPS-III contract. The SLS won't be ready until next year, it'll only have about 10% more payload capacity to LEO than Falcon Heavy and it'll cost at least three times as much, with no possibility of reuse. EADS are attracting a good amount of commercial launches, but their competitive advantage is fading rapidly. Ariane 5 is reportedly 3-4x more expensive than Falcon 9 and has less payload capacity to LEO. The planned Ariane 6 will be considerably cheaper than Ariane 5, but it'll have less payload capacity and still won't be price-competitive with Falcon 9. EADS have not announced plans for a heavy launch vehicle. Blue Origin are chasing SpaceX's tail. The New Glenn vehicle won't begin test flights until 2020, it has less payload capacity than Falcon Heavy, shows no signs of being cheaper and isn't as reusable. Even if everything goes to plan, they'll still be badly trailing behind SpaceX.