3 ms·

The fact that SpaceX can piggyback on its own customers' launches to put these in orbit is a significant advantage over competing communication constellations.

The fact that SpaceX can piggyback on its own customers' launches to put these in orbit is a significant advantage over competing communication constellations. Depending on the cost of their satellites it might make sense to use launching them as a means of testing the upper limits of reusability of their rockets. IE, they might not want to risk a customer payload on a rocket that has made 10 launches. But if they are going to build 7,518 satellites the marginal cost is likely to be rather low so it might be worth it to push the risk threshold to stretch the number of trips per rocket. Also, it could be a good opportunity to clear out their inventory of pre-block 5 Falcon 9s.

Rebelgecko 8y ago
I would be surprised if they launch many of the satellites on customer launches. They have some very specific orbits, and are planning on dropping the satellites off in orbits much lower than where they will actually be operating. It would probably be more fuel efficient to drop off a bunch of them in the right inclination all at once, then boost them up into spaced out orbits.
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  It's possible that they will use reflown Falcon 9s that have exceeded their reuse capability (~10 launches) to deliver these satellites. You're only paying for the propellant, the oxidizer, the second stage, and your fixed operations cost; the rest of the vehicle has been amortized through paying customer flights.
  - soperj 8y ago
    They only reuse the first stage at this point, so still a lot of cost there.
wolf550e 8y ago
All pre block 5 boosters are either retired or had been disposed of. https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/wiki/cores https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/wiki/cores
azernik 8y ago
It's not about piggybacking on customer launches - these will mostly be launched on dedicated launches. Rather, it's about using spare capacity freed up by the long-foreseen slowdown in the geostationary launch business that has historically been SpaceX's (and everyone else's) bread and butter, without crashing market launch prices.

Rebelgecko 8y ago

I would be surprised if they launch many of the satellites on customer launches. They have some very specific orbits, and are planning on dropping the satellites off in orbits much lower than where they will actually be operating. It would probably be more fuel efficient to drop off a bunch of them in the right inclination all at once, then boost them up into spaced out orbits.

toomuchtodo 8y ago
It's possible that they will use reflown Falcon 9s that have exceeded their reuse capability (~10 launches) to deliver these satellites. You're only paying for the propellant, the oxidizer, the second stage, and your fixed operations cost; the rest of the vehicle has been amortized through paying customer flights.
- soperj 8y ago
  They only reuse the first stage at this point, so still a lot of cost there.

wolf550e 8y ago

All pre block 5 boosters are either retired or had been disposed of. https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/wiki/cores https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/wiki/cores

azernik 8y ago

It's not about piggybacking on customer launches - these will mostly be launched on dedicated launches. Rather, it's about using spare capacity freed up by the long-foreseen slowdown in the geostationary launch business that has historically been SpaceX's (and everyone else's) bread and butter, without crashing market launch prices.