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That’s a similar payload to the modern Electron rocket. There’s a good market for launching small satellites. Much more so today than in 1970, of course.
by mikeash 8y ago
That’s a similar payload to the modern Electron rocket. There’s a good market for launching small satellites. Much more so today than in 1970, of course.
- Retric 8y agoFair point, though the Electron rocket has 2 launches and 1 successful so I am not sure how large the market is. The problem is you can generally stuff 2+ payloads into a single rocket which means small payloads can usually find some spare capacity on another launch at a discount. However, you can't really scale up a rocket that's not large enough.
- mikeash 8y agoLooks like they have a decent number of flights booked for the near future. It’s not a huge market, but there are small satellites that need to be in a unique orbit or can’t wait around for a matching payload to ride with. Time will tell just how big of a market that really is.
- northwest65 8y agoI think it was said that the Electron is capable of carrying something like 97% of all satellites launched last year.
- Retric 8y agoActual communication satilies are still several tons. Cube sats are 1kg and you can toss hundreds of them with a tiny rocket. Thus the median satilite is light, but most payload capacity is taken up with big satellites.