F9 can do 22,800kg per launch when flying expendable. I don't think SpaceX intends to many expendable launches for their own constellations. iirc the max payloa

F9 can do 22,800kg per launch when flying expendable. I don't think SpaceX intends to many expendable launches for their own constellations. iirc the max payload to LEO when flying recoverable to barge is ~18,000kg, and when returning to launch site ~13,000kg. To minimize costs, I think it makes more sense for them to do RTLS than barge landings, especially as barge landings put hard limits on launch frequency (the barges aren't very fast). However, even that 13,000kg is probably too high, because that is to an orbit that is probably lower than the 1150-1300km ones they are going to use for this. However, for practical reasons enlarging the fairings can be more expensive than just flying more, so the limit of satellites per launch is probably set by how many they can fit into the standard F9 payload fairing. (1). > If they wait for the BFR They can't wait for very long, or they might lose their spectrum allocation. The contract requires them to put up half of their constellation in 6 years. (1) page 36 of: http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/falcon_9_users_guide_rev_2.0.pdf http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/falcon_9_users_guid...